In 2016, for the first time, we took artists of all ages from across the region to destinations around the country including Liverpool, Stoke on Trent, Lincolnshire and the Isle of Wight.
As word spread, we found ourselves being asked to attend even more events than initially planned and continuing the tour until October 2016; a great success for us as an organisation, our artists and the carnival sector as a whole.
Here is what the tour looked like in numbers:
- We ended up on tour for a total of 33 days
- We reached 138,646 people through live audiences, and 723,674 people online
- We engaged 1396 participants through the tour
- We ran 43 training sessions
- We worked with 46 troupes/floats and 456 artists from the East Midlands region
- The tour was supported by 264 volunteers whose volunteered time totalled 2112 hours.
As well as taking carnival to new audiences, the tour opened up real opportunities for artists in the region; here is what some of them had to say…
“The Flight of Fantasy tour was amazing start to finish, we visited so many places including the Isle of Wight which we would have never imagined going to. The project was well managed and had loads of highlights including Liverpool’s Brouhaha International which showed us a different type of carnival and costumes. I was also involved in the headdress workshops which I loved so much because there are kids out there that have never experienced carnival before but to see their faces when they made their own head dresses was amazing. Overall it was a 10/10 project and I would love to be involved in the next one.”
“The Flight of Fantasy tour was a great opportunity to engage and collaborate with local artists. As a dance and costume artist I thought this project was incredibly well thought through, the engagement with so many schools in Lincolnshire was impressive and how hundreds of children and their teachers learnt about Brazil, Carnival Dance and how to make carnival headdresses was a very empowering experience. I particularly enjoyed the final event with all the children, teachers and artists together witnessing and watching live the delivery of weeks of hard work. Each smile and feeling of achievement and joy in every child present on the day was totally irreplaceable.”
