Festival showcase for city youngsters of all cultures

Aug 3 2007 by Vicky Anderson, Liverpool Daily Post

Festival showcase for city youngsters of all cultures

AN ALL-DAY children’s festival will promote cultural diversity among Liverpool’s youngsters today.

Entertainment around the site of the Walker Art Gallery and World Museum Liverpool includes street theatre, model-making, circus skills, drumming workshops, tightrope walkers, face-painting, fake beach on site.

Among the performers are 30 dancers from the Toxteth group the Greenhouse project, set up in 1998 to promote community diversity, who are being sponsored by the Campaign for Racial Equality.

Director Debbie Wright said the city still needed to confront racism in the community, which was brought to the fore by the murder of black teenager Anthony Walker in Huyton in July, 2005.

“There was a need for kids to have things to do, to have a greater understanding of their own culture, heritage, and how the diversity of the city came about,” she said.

“It was all about making links between young people who tend to stay in their own groups, and trying to break down some barriers between different cultural groups through the arts. The death of Anthony Walker highlighted a situation that already existed.

“The performance will showcase the work of this project, it places a value on it that the young people will have done something amazing and will show it to the rest of the city.”

Funding has come from a number of sources over the years, including Children in Need and the Heritage Lottery Fund.

Kay Hampton, chair of the CRE, said: “The race debate is alive and kicking, from the recent coverage of Big Brother to newspaper reports on the rise of gun crime.”

Today is the sixth Liverpool Children's Festival, presented by Liverpool Young Culture Action Group and the Liverpool Culture Company.

Fourteen-year-old Imani Thompson, of Liverpool Young Culture Action Group, said: "We organise the festival to make sure that everyone in the city can have a go at new arts and cultural activities for free.”

Festivities will be centred around William Brown Street, including World Museum Liverpool, the Walker Art Gallery, Central Library, St John's Gardens and St George's Plateau.

The day will conclude with a parade at 4pm outside World Museum Liverpool.

vickyanderson