Out of Doors is back for its second year, after its huge success in July 2020!
Back then, it was an online festival that Arts Active launched in response to the pandemic, and when remote learning had become part of the furniture of the lives of young people during lockdown. So, this year, Out of Doors is LIVE at the Summer of Smiles festival, with a programme of different activities for children and young people to enjoy.
What can you get up to?
The people at Arts Active are big part of what’s going on at Summer of Smiles, and they offer something for everyone to get stuck in with.
“We’ve got two tents that are programmed by Arts Active and also Criw Celf which is a visual arts project managed by Tom Godard as part of the Arts Active programme of work, and is the brainchild of Bryony Harris” explains Patricia O’Sullivan, who is the Marketing & Communications Co-ordinator for Arts Active at Summer of Smiles.
“One tent is very much crafts, make and do. The other tent has storytelling, music, and dance”.
They even have their own portrait artists at the festival, who are based in the portrait pod, who will draw your picture for you to take as your own souvenir!
“There’s various activities such as rubber stamping, making butterflies, constructing your own snake cardboard cutouts, and much more. Then, over at the music, dance & storytelling tent, we have Barod, which is a bilingual storytelling music session for young kiddies. There’s also a samba session, which is designed for people to just have fun and let their hair down”.
What does it take to organise such an operation?
TheSprout has caught up with lots of young people at Summer of Smiles, and they are having lots of fun with the different activities on offer. But it has been difficult to organise all the different attractions the festival site has to display.
Patricia who has been marketing the Arts Active activities says;
“From the craft aspect, we have commissioned a number of visual artists. They are Welsh based local artists.”
Of course, there are performing artists on hand to offer an interactive experience and add to the festival atmosphere on the lawn of Cardiff’s City Hall.
“Again, we bring these in and they are local. It is all about devising a plan for activities to suit younger children and toddlers. It is very much a process of devising an idea to implementation and delivery.”
“It is quite a detailed process, but at the end of it, we get to see the fun that everyone is having in doing all the things we have set out.”
The festival so far
One week has already flown by at the festival, and hundreds of young people and families have come through the gates at Summer of Smiles. All the team at Arts Active have been busy interacting with everyone at the festival as well as keeping us updated with what’s happening online.
“I’ve been kept busy on our social media as our activities have been busy, many of our sessions have been full so we are really pleased with how things are going”
“I know the artists and Arts Active team have been having fun. The festival has a really nice feel to it, there is an informality to it and it feels very safe and very friendly. I know the artists are having a great time with their work, and getting to meet the young people and their families in a safe way.”
There are still two weeks left of the festival, and you can book your tickets here.
“It’s £2 a ticket for a lot of fun! Of course, you have the apps you can download from the App Store and Google Play. All of the stuff we are doing is free to anyone who comes along and joins in. I would say, come down and have some fun!”
Related Information
See what else is going on at the Summer of Smiles here.