Peterborough Celebrates Festival is BACK at Ferry Meadows (19th-21st May 2023) and we would love YOU to be involved this year!

The free-to-attend community festival is all about celebration and feeling good. Inspired by this theme, we are creating a Field of Colour, created from flowers made from recycled bottles - and we need your help!

We are inviting schools, local groups, communities and individuals to get involved in creating and decorating flowers using recycled plastic bottles. To make a big impact, each school or group will create flowers in one colour linked to a wellbeing theme, or their school colours. The flower display will be created on Coney Meadow, next to the main Festival site and each coloured section will be labelled with the school’s name and logo so that children can bring their families along to see the display, take some colourful photos and join in the Festival fun.   

Thank you to all the schools and groups who are already on board and busily making flowers for the Festival. These are:

Bharat Hindu Samaj, Bourne Westfield Primary Academy, Cromwell Community College Primary Phase, Edith Weston Academy, Families First Peterborough, Gunthorpe Brownies, Hampton Grove Care Home, Nene and Ramnoth School, Nexus Fostering, Old Fletton Primary School, Ormiston Meadows Academy, Orton Malborne Girlguiding, Orton Wistow Primary School, Orton Wistow Rainbows, Sacred Heart Catholic Primary School, Thomas More Primary School and West Town Primary Academy.

Interested schools and groups are invited to contact the events team to find out what colour flowers they should make. Individuals are welcome to go ahead and get creating - you can find a step by step guide below. Finished flowers can be brought into the Ferry Meadows Visitor Centre and these will be assembled by the events team in the lead up to the festival.

We are also holding two free public workshops at Ferry Meadows during the Easter holidays so you can come along and make a flower. These are on Saturday 15th April (in the Lynch Lake Community Hub) and Sunday 16th April (Discovery Den) 9am-3.30pm. No need to book. Everyone is welcome - just come along.

Contact the events team at [email protected] to get involved. We're looking forward to hearing from you.

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Step by step guide to making flowers from recycled bottles

You will need:

• 1 recycled plastic bottle (2 litre) and the bottle top
• Scissors
• Acrylic paint
• Paint brush

Step 1:

Gather your materials.

Step 2:

Cut the top off the plastic bottle by cutting in a straight line along the ridge right above where the label would be. Cutting along the ridge will allow you to cut in a straight line!

   

Step 3:

Make the Petals by cutting 5 equally spaced lines towards the top. The cuts should be approximately 3.5-4cm in length.

Step 4:

• Create the petal shape and form.
• Cut curved edges between each vertical cut that was made in step 3.

   

• Pull the petals back towards the bottle cap.

   

Step 5: 

Paint your flowers.

  

• Use your designated colour to paint your flowers with acrylic paint. Try making your paint lighter or darker to give the petal definition.
• Allow the paint to dry and paint a second coat.

Step 6:

Finally attach a piece of tape with your name on it to the back of your flower.