UNCELEBRATED Journey, the High Sheriff's of Wiltshire's ambitious showcase for the creativity and accomplishments of Swindon's diverse performing talent, proved a runaway success.

The sell-out one-off show on Saturday night at the Wyvern Theatre featured 230 performers - amateur and professional, from the fields of dance, music, theatre and film. At the end of the show, High Sheriff Nicky Alberry said Swindon was, "a town to be celebrated for all its performing arts." She paid tribute to the performers and the team that had helped create the event.

Uncelebrated Journey told the story of Alfred Williams, the poor boy who began working in the Great Western Railway works and became a writer and published poet.

His story was narrated by youngsters from Prime Theatre, and the stages of his life were interpreted and reflected in a variety of performances, beginning with a film called All That In Nature by Gurchetan Singh and Create Studios. Other new work included The Coming of Peace by composer Roger May and the moving HipHop dance From Furnace to Trenches by Banxy.

Uncelebrated Journey featured Swindon Dance and the Judith Hockaday School, with new choreography by Helen Ganberg, the Urban Centre of Advanced Training, choreographed by Banxy, music from Paul Turner, Caroline Dale and Harvey Cullis, the Wessex Male Choir, the South Asian Performing Arts Centre, Swindon Choral Society, Swindon Symphony Orchestra with soloist Natalie Chequer, the JTP Trust Concert Choir, Ten in a Bar and the Commonweal School Choir. Rachael Gillespie and Ashley Dixon, by permission of Northern Ballet, performed Leave Me Not Ever, to an arrangement from Puccini's Madame Butterfly. Rachael was born and began training in Swindon before attending the Central School of Ballet in London.

Uncelebrated Journey culminated in a finale celebrating the Hammerman poet's legacy, and symbolising the vibrant, diverse, creative town of today, with a new arrangement of Coldplay's Viva La Vida performed by an assembly of choirs.