Press Release

Macclesfield Barnaby Festival:
A storming success

For one perfect summer weekend, Macclesfield town centre was brought to life with music, performance, visual arts and market stalls selling local food and drink. Thousands of people visited spaces and places they’d never explored before, enjoying events such as a late night cabaret, a specially commissioned opera, open art studios and the Barnaby Fete.  

Macclesfield Barnaby Festival, which took place on 18th-20th June this year, was co-organised by Jane Munro, editor of the on-line listings magazine, ‘the loop’:

“The Cabaret got the weekend off to a riotous start and it just got better and better”, she says. “Seeing so many people on the streets of Macclesfield was fantastic. Business boomed, as bars and restaurants enjoyed their best weekends ever, and Barnaby market stalls ran out of cakes and beer the demand was so great. The positivity and buzz were tremendous and proved there is an audience in Macc hungry for interesting, stimulating, fun things to do.”

Over 2,000 people passed through the doors of St Michael’s Church in the town centre (to see probably the largest cardigan in the world) and 1100 people visited Christ Church to see the ‘Save Us’ contemporary art exhibition. Tucked away off Market Place, the 16th century King Edward Street Chapel, enjoyed over 300 visitors to its textile exhibition, coordinated by artist Stephanie Ramage:

“This is the first time – and I have lived in Macclesfield since 1968 – that I felt a real sense of community and warmth in the town” she says. “I felt that I was a part of something very, very special. I felt that I had some ownership in my own town.”

Newly elected Macclesfield MP, David Rutley, enjoyed the festival weekend with his family.
“I was delighted to see how successful the Barnaby Festival was” he says. “All the feedback I have had from local residents has been fantastic and is a real tribute to all those who put in so much hard work to make the event possible.”

“We have been inundated by positive feed back” agrees Jane Munro. “All demanding (nicely) a follow up next year. It feels like Barnaby has a momentum of its own now! We hope lots of people will get behind it, as it’s a Herculean task to pull together. But the impact on the town, its traders and the community spirit is huge.”

NOT FOR PRINT: For more information, and 300dpi images, please contact Fiona Bailey on 0776 167 7370.
(10 July 2010)