Love New Brighton

At New Brighton Community Centre we have been busy transforming young people's involvement in excellent music and creative opportunities which has been made possible by the support of Youth Music. New Brighton is a seaside resort on the banks of the River Mersey that for many years was (as was the case for many similar seaside towns across the country) run down  with its best years behind it... but all that has been changing in recent years with a big regeneration programme that has brought businesses and visitors back to New Brighton again. However the music and creative offer for local children and young people had all but disappeared and New Brighton is a cold spot when it comes to participatory music-making for our young people so we have developed a Wirral Young People's Music Programme and set up a new event called the Love New Brighton Parade that is fast becoming a fantastic new youth-led annual music and creative event for the whole community!

At New Brighton Community Centre we have been busy transforming young people's involvement in excellent music and creative opportunities which has been made possible by the support of Youth Music. New Brighton is a seaside resort on the banks of the River Mersey that for many years was (as was the case for many similar seaside towns across the country) a faded and run down place with its best years behind it... but all that has been changing in recent years with a big regeneration programme that has brought businesses and visitors back to New Brighton again and its becoming a new and vibrant place to come and visit and spend time in...

However the music and creative offer for local children and young people had all but disappeared and New Brighton is a cold spot when it comes to participatory music-making for our young peopleso we have developed a Wirral Young People's Music Programme and set up a new event called the Love New Brighton Parade that is fast becoming a fantastic new youth-led annual music and creative event for the whole community. The programme began in late 2014 when we sat down with key partners - Brightside CIC and Wallasey Youth Hub as well as Wirral Council, local schools and locally based artists and musicians etc to talk about the possibility of engaging local children and young people in music-making and creative workshops with a view to showcasing ther talents in music and performance but also in event managment and promotion by creating a new event - the Parade! Everyone thought it was a great idea! We began by offering free taster workshops around the community. The most popular sessions were Samba Druming workshops as well as music technology and event managment. A number of regualr music-making groups developed and we then began to spread the word around the whole community that we were putitng on the first ever Love New Brighton Parade in summer 2015. And we had a theme.. 'A little bit of Rio comes to New Brighton..' In the build up to the event, Samba drumming could be heard all over the town. Wirral Samba Band led these out of school hours sessions and led the parade with the children and young people's New Brighton Samba band right behind them. over 200 people took part in the event with around 2000 people watching and supporting it! Since the great success of our first year we have ben working closely with our partners to raise the support we need to run Love New Brighton 2016. Plans are going really well. This year we are working in partnership with The Open Door Centre which offers creative mental health support for local young people. Together we have recruited our young creative apprentices and we are suporting these fantasitc young people to run this year's Love New Brighton Parade....It takes place on Saturday July 16 from 12 noon - so watch this space for more information or get in touch and get involved!