The 12th and 13th September 2009 saw the 30th anniversary of the Rotherham Show in its new location at Rosehill Victoria Park in Rawmarsh. A great weekend of entertainment was promised and it didn’t disappoint as thousands came through the gates over the two days to enjoy the many exhibits and shows on offer.
Inspire Rotherham had a 30x30 foot tent at the heart of the show by the main arena offering two days full of activities and performances for all the family allowing children to be as creative as they wanted and explore their imagination. This provided a great opportunity for families to communicate and work together whilst also having fun. A sticker was given to each child for taking part in an activity with a goody bag being given out after successfully taking part in three.
Children were offered the chance to decorate their own gingerbread biscuit with different coloured icing and get imaginative, naming the gingerbread person and coming up with its own looks and personality. They used their literacy skills by reading the instructions and completing sentences to describe their gingerbread person. This proved very popular among all visitors of the tent with some children coming back on both days for more. It was great to see families working together to complete all aspects of the activity.
Inspire Rotherham also encouraged children to create their own magical glasses and hats, scrapbook pages and comic strips on a table full of glitter, felt, feathers, straws, glues and other accessories. The children were allowed to go wild, sticking things together in the most creative of ways. All ages got stuck in and the activity provided an opportunity for children and adults to talk about their ideas and use their imaginative skills to produce some wonderful work. The scrapbook pages have been put into a scrapbook which will be coming to a library near you, while the glasses and hats are still out in the community, providing the creators with the most incredible powers.
Both days saw the visit of two professional authors. Saturday kicked off with a bang by the arrival of Peter J Murray, the author of the gripping tale of a mysterious stalker called Mokee Joe. Peter performed 4 interactive sessions on the Saturday, each one an enthralling and humorous account into the creation of the character Mokee Joe. Audience participation was high on the agenda allowing children to listen and talk their way through a wonderful story session which included several costumes, funny voices and very big shoes…A signed copy of any one of Peter’s books was offered free to children in the audience after watching the performance as a gift from Inspire Rotherham.
Martin Conway, the creator of the Olaf the Viking books picked up where Peter left off on Sunday, presenting the audience with several interactive short stories and sketches. These included ‘sing a longs’ for both parents and children as well as more costume changes than you thought would be possible by one man. Martin presented several humorous performances throughout the day and continued by reading several short stories to small groups of children. A signed copy of Martin’s first book will be sent to the children who participated in his story sessions.
Children were encouraged to explore the communication friendly spaces by reading in the tents provided and participate in musical activities in the music corner with several percussive instruments and a guitar on display. This was a great opportunity for families to engage with each other and rest their legs whilst enjoying a good book. There were also puppets laid around the tent which children could play with and use as a reading aid.
Inspire Rotherham invited Radiowaves to have a table in the tent which gave children the chance to explore the world of the media and reporting. After some activities, the young people were interviewed about the Rotherham Show as well as talking about the books they like to read. All the interviews will be edited and then put onto the Radiowaves website. Several children were given the opportunity to take to the mic themselves and were let loose on the show ground to interview members of the public as well as the people running other activities. They were all given a microphone and a set of headphones and set off on their way to becoming reporters. Inspire Rotherham provided a stall for Bookstart outside the tent at which they played with puppets and gave out free copies of books. They also provided information on Bookstart to the public. At the public launch of Inspire Rotherham in March, children were asked to come up with a name for the face of Inspire Rotherham with the winning name being Spark. The winner of the competition collected a prize from the Inspire Rotherham tent at the Rotherham show and had their photo taken with Spark. Spark walked around the show site handing out balloons and posing for photos which was a big hit with many members of the public, parents and children alike.