We are proud to have been part of the co-production team for the Thornbury Fun Palace event on Saturday 1st October, which brought hundreds of people together to celebrate what the community has to offer. Local people, organisations and businesses shared their unique skills and passions in an event run by, for and with the community. Everyone was able to join in and discover something new with 25 fun, free activities happening across 10 locations around Thornbury High Street.
Thornbury’s Mayor was in attendance at the event, welcoming in the first visitors who arrived to pick up their map and timetable from the Town Hall to help them join in with all the event had to offer.
The Mayor of Thornbury said on the day “It is great to see the community of Thornbury coming together for the Thornbury Fun Palace event. A big thank you to JIGSAW Thornbury and South Gloucestershire Council Regeneration Team for organising such a fabulous fun, free event”
There were over 1000 visitors to Thornbury Library which hosted 5 different activities including braille name badge making, rhymetime, read to the therapy dog, U3A family history research advice and meet a roman soldier from Thornbury and District Heritage Trust.
One Thornbury resident commented “There is something for all ages on offer. We came out at 10am and are still here nearly four hours later!”
Visitors could also have a try at street dance with BALPA, Music with Mummy, antenatal taster classes, Halloween crafts with South Gloucestershire Community Learning and Skills, Shrektastic crafts with Thornbury Music Group and various more physical activities such as table cricket, table tennis, triathlon and running at various pubs, church halls and even at the Mundy Playing fields where Thornbury Rotary had their Walkathon stand.
South Gloucestershire Council cabinet member for communities, councillor Rachael Hunt said: “There was a fantastic buzz in Thornbury on Saturday and a real sense of community spirit as people chatted and spent time together taking part in the huge range of activities on offer. We are pleased to have supported the event both practically and financially, with our High Street team working as part of the organisation committee and through helping to promote the event to residents across South Gloucestershire, bringing people together in one place to enjoy an amazing day of free activities.”
St Mary Centre hosted a sparkle photo booth from Brain Tumour Support, Krunch South West youth team with glitter tatoos and stone painting, flower posies with Jolies Fleursand Thornbury Community Composting led a recycling challenge, while JIGSAW Thornbury’s Young Volunteers ran a community cafe and other fun youth-led activities.
Hattie Clayton, Interim CEO at JIGSAW Thornbury was part of the organising committee and says: “We are so proud of the part we played in bringing the community together. It was really exciting to see the event grow from last year with so many local people, groups, and businesses taking part in the event by sharing skills and hosting activities. A great opportunity too for us to raise awareness of the work we do with children and young people with additional needs and their families”
We’d like to congratulate all the JIGSAW Thornbury Young Volunteers who were kept very busy at the event running our community cafe. We loved welcoming families into our venue where they had the opportunity to find out more about what we do including our SENsory Lending Library, and to enjoy delicious home made cakes! Thanks to all the volunteers involved on the day and our young people who led some fantastic fun activities including Sim car racing and paper ‘copters.
Fun Palaces create events that bring together arts, science, craft, tech, digital, heritage and sports activities – but above all people – to work together, create together, have fun together, and in doing so, connect our own communities, from the grassroots up. You can find out more information on their website https://funpalaces.co.uk/
Thornbury Fun Palace was co-produced by JIGSAW Thornbury, South Gloucestershire Council with support from St Mary Centre, My Thornbury, The Swan Pub, Thornbury Rotary and the Inner Wheel with activities offered by many local groups and venues around the High Street in Thornbury. https://funpalaces.co.uk/fun-palace/thornbury-fun-palace-2/