‘Join the Fight’, the show created by young people in their summer school this August, held its final performance on Saturday 29th September as part of New Mills Festival.
Work started in April at the Young Writers’ Camp when nearly 30 young people from across the High Peak came together for a trip to the People’s History Museum in Manchester. In two following days they wrote characters inspired by the centenary of some women winning the vote and other campaigns they found in the museum.
More young people joined the project from April to July, in workshops in 
Gamesley in Glossop and Fairfield in Buxton and signed up for our August summer school. Over 7 days nearly 40 young people aged 8 – 18 came together to turn the early ideas into a performing arts show and created “Join the Fight” – a performance trail for New Mills Festival 2018. The final show includes music, drama, dance and film set in different locations in New Mills and starting from High Lee Hall in the park on St Mary’s Road. For the first time our older participants have created all the work in one venue, which is suitable for an audience age 13+ and presents a young view of gender and sexuality issues. However, skipping that venue, there is still plenty for a family audience!
High Peak Community Arts couldn’t provide this fantastic range of youth programme without their range of funders; from Santander Discovery Fund for the Young Writers’ Camp to National Foundation for Youth Music, local Bingham Trust and Derbyshire Councillors’ Initiative Funds for workshops on the estates and our recent grant from Arts Council England joined by One Stop Carriers for Causes and Tesco Bags of Help funding for the summer school.
The young performers were excited to present their work, and pulled out all the stops for the public when they arrived!
We are excited to announce that we have received the backing of the National Foundation for Youth Music with a 3 year grant which will bring musical activity to schools and community spaces across the High Peak.
Take a woodland, 12 animations, 6 songs, 3 dramas and 
The elves are at work on the Young Writers’ Camp Collection 2017, with seven stories and dozens of characters jostling for position behind the scenes.
Tall Tales starts again with 8 music sessions from this Monday 15th May (Fairfield) and Thursday 18th July (Gamesley) through to 17th / 20th July (with 2 weeks off at half term).
For young people age 13+ the Young Writers’ Camp had a special introductory masterclass with the award-winning theatre company 20 Stories High.
“Let’s do something like this again!” they said last year – so we did it all again!
Day 1 – The Ideas Day. Put together a quick group story, learn the key points of story structure and then work on your own on in small groups to write your own. In the afternoon, explore the woods around Longdendale Environmental Centre and collect sounds for Day 2.