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Kilburn Festival cancelled

KilburnFestival2011

The Kilburn Festival, an annual event in Kilburn Grange Park, has been cancelled less than a month before it was due to take place on July 13th.

Some 10,000 people typically attend the family-friendly day, which comprises stalls, street food, live music and lots of kid-friendly activities.

The trustees say that they “do not have sufficient funds to put on a safe and quality festival this summer, but are hoping to plan events later in the year, and to be able to deliver a summer festival in 2015.”

West Hampstead Life understands that it is a lack of funding from Brent Council that has led to this situation. The local elections meant that Brent changed its dates on funding decisions and simply wasn’t able to make a decision in time over the Kilburn Festival funding. Other Brent-sponsored events have apparently also suffered as a result.

Make a wish at the Kilburn Festival

Next Sunday, the Kilburn Festival takes over Kilburn Grange park.

One of the more unusual events is called “The Wishing Wall”. It will consist of 100 wooden bubbles displayed in the park. Each bubble will have been written or drawn on by members of the local community expressing a wish for the future.

Why 100? Well, it’s Kilburn Grange Park’s 100th anniversary this year. And why the bubbles? It’s to support the national Giving Voice campaign. The event’s organiser, Emma Shaughnessy, is training to be a speech & language therapist, and the Giving Voice campaign aims to raise awareness of the profession and its ability to give a voice to all members of a community through therapy.

“The Wishing Wall will be a great opportunity for members of the local community to contribute to creating a memorable artefact that everyone can reflect upon during their time in the park,” said Emma. “It’s a really fun and positive way for residents to think about what they hope for in the future.”

If you’d like to be part of this project you can e-mail Emma at chazy32@hotmail.com. You can reserve a bubble for the day itself or, if you can’t make it on the day, Emma may be able to get a bubble to you in advance.

It’s a simple but rather pleasing idea – and with local businesses also getting involved, we may see these bubbles hanging around our West Hampstead shops after the festival.