To celebrate the Charity's 22nd Birthday, we ran a free Birthday Party with performances by Haggis and Charlie (jugglers extraordinaires!), parachute games, talent show, inflatable animals, singing & dancing, bouncy castles etc. from 2.00pm - 5.00pm on 26 May, in the Abbey Park Playground. We were blessed with good weather, more than 800 attended - and everyone had a fantastic time!

CHILDREN'S FESTIVALS

This year we ran our 4th Bristol Children's Festival on 25, 26, 27 & 28 July and our 22nd Glastonbury Children's Festival on 1, 2, 3 & 4 August. Unfortunately the weather on the first 2 days at Bristol was appalling with torrential rain, and the Friday at Glastonbury was overcast, but we had extremely good (although excrutiatingly hot) weather for the other days at both Festivals. As usual, we had a wonderful line-up of performers including Parachute Theatre Company, Rudi Wallenda & his Exploding Clown Car, Haggis & Charlie, Blue Moon Theatre, the Rhythm Project, Circus Fudge, Foolhardy Folk, Theatre of Adventure, Devilstick The Clown, Tip the Wink Puppets and Dragonfly Mime Company. There were juggling and circus skills workshops from Bosco Circus and Circus Antics, clay workshops from Shirley Jones, percussion workshops from the Rhythm Project and a large Craft Marquee where children could make hats, masks and costumes for each day's Grand Parade. A daily Talent Show, Anne Harris's Menagerie of Giant Inflatable Animals, Co-Ordinated Chaos with their Monster Ball, Barfly, Giant Inflatable Slide, Bouncy Castles, Ballpool, Face-painting, Badge-making and much more. Approximately 3,000 children and their families attended each Festival.

Children's World would like to thank the Central Somerset Gazette, Bristol Evening Post, Venue Magazine, Mendip District Council, Wessex Water, Cleanaway Ltd., Georgian Portable Sanitation Ltd. and Eric Lukins for their invaluable help. Without their support, the help of the many Festival volunteers, and all the performers who come to us at a much-reduced rate, we could not stage such wonderful and safe events that give so much pleasure to so many families, and raise much-needed funds for our Special Schools Tours.

2004 CHILDREN'S FESTIVAL DATES:

Bristol Children's Festival

23-26 July 2004

&

Glastonbury Children's Festival

30 July-2 August 2004

We undertook various days at different out-of-school venues this year taking our Soft Play Inflatable, Parachute Games, badge-making, face-painting etc. to Escape in Taunton, Ups and Downs in Westonzoyland, a Community Fun Day in Glastonbury organised by the Area Regeneration Board and Mini Sure Start, in Glastonbury, to help them celebrate their launch. We also ran a day of Drama and Video Workshops for teeangers with special needs at Street Youth Club. This day went extremely well, despite the wide age and ability range, and we expect to be invited to undertake more work for the County Youth Service. "Just a quick note to say a big thank you for your assistance in our summer activity workshops here at Street's Young People's Centre. The Video Workshop was a great success. Children's World's encouragement and sensitivity resulted in all the young people participating throughout the day - a fantastic achievement considering that most of the young people had a wide range of learning disabilities and had met for the first time that day. Recommendations are already being circulated throughout Somerset County Council Youth Services staff".
Inclusion Worker, Somerset County Youth Services