In June 2023 we hosted the first ever Midsummer Festival in Hillsborough Park, a free community festival celebrating art and creativity. The festival brought people together between two expensive commercial events which had closed the park for locals for several weeks at a time.
The festival was a huge collaboration, coordinated by RivelinCo and in partnership with Age UK Sheffield, the park’s bowls, croquet, judo and dance clubs, The Bare Project and the Darnall community weavers, the Friends of Hillsborough Park volunteers, Share and Repair volunteers, Sheffield Wednesday Football Club Community Programme, Disability Sheffield, Cycling For All, SayIt Sheffield, Artworks South Yorkshire, S6 Swifts, Sheffield City Council, the Depot Bakery and others.
Activities included parachute games, reuse and repair activities, arts and crafts, football, cycling, screenprinting, badge-making, face painting, and weaving. The Bare Project theatre company hosted a story swap cafe, artists from Artworks South Yorkshire hosted an interactive installation, PifPaf Theatre hosted walkabout performances and the Poetry Takeaway van wrote bespoke pop-up poems for passers by.
The festival was attended by over 1500 local people, and received hugely positive feedback. We hope to bring it back even bigger and better in 2025.
