19/05/22

Adrian Oates, Head of Fundraising and Marketing

I am writing this a few days after the wonderful collection of acrobats, singers, circus performers, actors, artists, community representatives and so many other participants took their final bow after helping to make the Peterborough Celebrates festival such a special occasion. The sun shone – most of the time - and our audience had fun and enjoyed new experiences with so much on offer across the festival weekend, from local groups and acts to international disco stars! Most of all, the festival was what we all hoped it would be - a stage to celebrate everything that is great about Peterborough and a chance to thank everyone who has supported us through the last two years when their help was needed more than ever.

Behind the scenes an immense amount of work has been put into making the festival a success. Like the proverbial iceberg, the public only sees the end result of many months of meetings, negotiations, budget wrangling, fundraising, publicising, site setup and other work to prepare for the weekend. Since late 2021 (and for some, a long time before that) a committed group of people have got together to discuss and plan every detail. Sub groups were formed to focus on specific areas such as creative programming, infrastructure, community involvement and finance, all overseen by weekly Steering Group meetings. We are eternally grateful to all the staff who were involved, in particular from Nene Park Trust and Peterborough City Council, as well as Simon, our Creative Producer, who have kept us on the right tracks to make sure we ended up with a fantastic festival.

But our biggest thanks must go to the over 20 partner organisations who have given their time to bring their support and expertise to form an exceptional consortium that drove the festival forward and truly made it a Peterborough-wide endeavour. To the more-than 60 community groups and other local organisations that joined us at Ferry Meadows over the weekend to help show off everything Peterborough has to offer. And to the dozens of local companies and funders who have contributed funding, food and other forms of support, without whom we would not have been able to put on such an exciting event.

This is by far the largest event we have held at Ferry Meadows for many years. We hope it kicks off a new era at the Park of events and activities that reflect and appeal to the many diverse communities across Peterborough, and engenders Ferry Meadows as a much-loved outdoor community hub. The partnerships and new contacts formed through Peterborough Celebrates Festival will really help to start us off in the right direction, and our National Lottery funded Your Community Greenspace project will be the means to take us on that journey over the next five years. We really hope you enjoy everything that we have to come!