Glorious weekend of art at the Lady Bay Arts Festival
This year’s Lady Bay Arts Festival took place as part of the National Volunteer’s Week on 16 th & 17th
May. Taking full advantage of a blustery but overall sunny weekend to launch its special 20 th
Anniversary, the event attracted a record 2000 visitors including children. Whilst both days proved
busy, Sunday brought a surge in numbers with some venues reporting over 500 visitors between 1pm
& 4pm! Unsurprisingly with a brilliant line up of 73 artists exhibiting across 27 venues in Lady Bay,
artists raised a fantastic £17800 increasing sales on 2014 by 40% and continuing the festival’s
contribution to boosting the local economy and supporting artists in the region.
The main Arts Trail took visitors to various corners of Lady Bay. Through leafy streets and alleys, they
were guided by a specially designed 20th edition brochure and map to discover wonderful displays of
paintings, photographs, sculptures, ceramics, pottery, jewellery, felts in homes and gardens. As in
previous years artists found interesting as well as unique ways to display their work in kitchens, front
rooms, sheds, conservatories and gardens.
A big attraction for 2015 was the art installation in All Hallows Church with 8 Nottingham based artists
collaborating with Rev Mark Rodel to create art in different spaces of the church responding to its
shaker style architecture and the theme places and spaces and back again. Specially commissioned by
the festival, the installation created a peaceful and thought provoking art space. Artists were amazed
at how many people were engaged with their work - male & female, young & old – and that there was
a genuine interest in their working processes with many offering their own thoughts.
There was plenty of entertainment for younger visitors with free art workshops run by professional
artists at Lady Bay Primary School. All activities were well attended with almost 300 children
participating in a range of papermaking, drawing, printmaking, dance and performance.
Meanwhile 1st Lady Bay Scouts, after selling out on their refreshments on Saturday, rose to the
challenge by baking late into the night for Sunday, raising a record £1,273 towards their campaign to
rebuild the scout hut in Mona road. A further £1751 was raised by volunteers for the Lady Bay School
Association, Lady Bay Community Association, Maggie’s, Water Aid and Millwood Cat Rescue.
To add pleasure to the weekend an accomplished range of instrument and song was provided
throughout the Arts Trail by the Poppy Folk Club, strolling musicians, bands and the Lady Bay
Community Choir.
Potter Alan Birchall felt this was his best festival ever “… it was an absolutely stunning festival. I really
enjoyed the weekend and was amazed at the number of visitors... Thank you for your superb
organisation”.
Due to the success of the last two years, there are plans to set up a new Young Person’s Creative
Project Fund; more details will be available in the autumn. The festival team would like to thank the
people of Lady Bay, volunteers, artists, sponsors and Cllr Hetherington, Mayor of Rushcliffe for
attending the 20th Anniversary party. 10% commission paid by artists’ sales plus door takings of £5016
has been contributed towards next year’s festival.
Anyone interested in finding out more about next year’s festival, which takes place in Lady Bay, West
Bridgford on 15th & 16th May 2016, email Brenda Baxter info@ladybayarts.org.uk
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