The Hive street festival creates a buzz in Shrewsbury
Shrewsbury arts venue and young person's charity the Hive hosted its third annual street festival yesterday with hundreds of people enjoying the glorious sunny weather.
Lots of activities and attractions were on offer and the event proved extremely popular with the whole community embracing the day. Bosses at the Hive believe it was the best street festival yet, following on from great acclaim last year!
The day saw drumming performances from several groups who are based across the West Midlands - there was Samba drumming, Japanese Taiko drumming and even Dohl drumming from an Indian wedding band who were accompanied by brass musicians! Activities on offer for children throughout the afternoon included lots of arts and crafts, mask-making, T-shirt printing and face-painting.
A flash-mob took to the street half-way through proceedings, plus Shropshire Cat Rescue made a special appearance too. Other attractions were a bag-piper, Henna artist, DJ and stalls - plus the Maypole proved more popular than ever before, with hoards of people particpating and having a go for the first time!
Habib Malik-Mansell of the Hive said "It sounds like a cliche - but this year's Hive street festival really was the best yet! The day ran exceptionally well and we even started early with lots of people on the street before the event officially started! Overall it was a fantastic day and we are already excited for next year which will be even bolder! I'm grateful to all the businesses and organisations who chose to support us this year - it was a great community event all around."
This year's event follows on from the successes of events held over the last 2 years, which also saw hundreds of people of all ages join forces in celebration for a good old-fashioned knees-up. Hive staff believe the best attendance yet was at this year's event - the Mayor and Mayoress of Shrewsbury also made a visit.
Local traders formed an important part of the community event and this year the Hive was supported by Bright Owls language school, Salop Medical Services, Iddys Ices, Eat-Up, DASH Disability Arts, We Are Frostfire, Hennacat and Severnside Housing. In addition to the Shrewsbury Town Centre Residents Association, shropshirelive.com, Slugworthes Candy, Severn Magazine, Jim Hawkins, Chris the Piper, Shropshire Cat Rescue and Battlefield Printing Group amongst numerous others. Two solicitors joined in this year too - both Wace Morgan and SLC Solicitors. The event was supported in part by Shropshire Council through Local Joint Committee funding.
