After the online festival of 2020, it was especially good to meet again in person at Astrea Academy Dearne on Saturday 25th September 2021.

We had 20 exhibitors present in the Main Hall, including old friends such as Shirley Swales, Jeanette Heavey and Angie’s Makes, but it was good to have Mandy McLoughlin and her needle-felting present in person along with Harry Watson (photography and gifts), Rebecca Sills (artwork and filmmaking) and Susan Carr (gifts and cards).

Many of our favourite workshops returned (including Encaustic Art Plus, Asmaa Chaudhry and Greentop Circus), but we were also pleased to welcome Barnsley Chronicle photographer Shaun Colborn to share his skills and to take part in the first Poppy Festival (creating poppies for Remembrance Day out of plastic bottles, the brainchild of Thurnscoe resident Catherine Slingsby.)

This was also the festival when we could continue our community art projects by painting elephants with Lydia Caprani (artist) and Gaby Lees from Barnsley Museums.

Performances onstage included Greentop Circus, Angel Voices Performing Academy and the Clayton School of Dance.