On Sunday 7th August, Trixie and a team of supporters from Hand In Hand Activities CIC, family members and friends from community activities took part in the Stockton International Riverside Festival Community Carnival on Stockton on Tees.
Although it had been short notice that we could take part, only receiving confirmed schedules the day before the event, we still managed to pull together a small group to represent Hand In Hand Activities CIC and two passengers to ride on board Trixie for the duration of the parade along the High Street and down to the Riverside.
The day started early, as we needed to be in Stockton for 12 noon ready to sign in and be allocated to our section. Alison and Caroline from HIHA CIC were in attendance along with Alison’s sister (and Caroline’s daughter) Lize, her partner Michael and their two daughters. Caroline and Lize carried the banner while Michael walked behind with the girls who were dancing with gymnastics ribbons.
Caroline T and Geoff attended to take part as passengers on the trishaw and had a very important job – to wave at the audience and smile! Geoff’s daughter walked along with us in order to take photographs and video footage for our social media. I would hazard a guess that Geoff was likely the oldest participant on the day at 94 years old. Our youngest participant was 7 years old and we had 3 generations of one family and 2 generations from another family in our group and it visually emphasised the inter generational nature of the project.
It was great to see so many members of the community turn out to both take part in the carnival but also to spectate too. We saw lots of people who we knew but many more who I am sure will become friends in the future.
Although the event was not without its trials and tribulations, which will be fed back to the event organisers for future reference, we had a fantastic day and were all completely worn out by the time it was finished. We hope to be able to take part again in the next Community Carnival at SIRF 2023 and will be more prepared next time with costumes and apparel to ensure we look like we are carnival participants!
Thank you to Caroline and Lize for taking charge of the banner and setting the pace for our section. Thank you to Michael for walking with the girls and the girls for dancing their way from start to finish. Thank you to Anne for getting some amazing action shots and video footage along the route. Thank you to Amber and the team at Stockton Borough Council who worked hard coordinating the whole event. Lastly, thank you to Caroline T and Geoff for sitting for so long on the trishaw, waving at spectators and smiling. There are some great moments captured of the parade and of the genuine sense of enjoyment in taking part.
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