Colours to shine out at arts festival (From The Wiltshire Gazette and Herald)

Colours to shine out at arts festival

Wootton Bassett will be awash with colour next week as the annual arts festival gets underway.

The festival, which will be taking place from Monday, gives budding new creative talents the chance to learn from the best.

Aimed as a celebration of creativity, classes are being held in the broad subjects of creative writing, music, art and photography and drama at the Wootton Bassett library.

Other classes include Bible reading, ensemble music, verse speaking and journalism.

The festival has continued to grow in popularity since it's inception four years ago and received its record number of entries this year.

A previous session took place on June 7 and 9 when poet Sue Chadd and drama teachers Sandra McDowell and Jacqui De Creed gave classes on their particular field of expertise.

Sue gave sessions to people of all ages, from primary school children to adults and has had many of her poems printed and holds a MA in creative writing.

The drama classes were for primary and secondary school children and Mrs De Creed explained that there are numerous different ways to learn drama.

“We gave some guidance on the best use of the stage and how to adopt the right physical expression of their characters and away they went.

“Everyone performed their scene and then watched the others so we learned by doing and sharing other people's ideas” she said. The experts said that the aim of these sessions was to give the participants a chance to explore their creative side and encourage them to continue developing their talents, just like the aims of the festival.

The entrants to the festival will receive professional feedback from the adjudicators and experts that are attending the show.

It is hoped that this will inspire the entrants to persist with their chosen creative art form and forge a new generation of creative talent in the community and local area.

There are also trophies and plagues to be given out in each category to the winners so there is a chance of immediate success for the entrants as well.

For more information, log onto www.wbaf.co.uk.