Over the last weekend in March, for the third year running GMDT held its annual ice festival. This year saw a 300 square metre rink and a huge 47-foot high inflatable toboggan slide in the park backed up by a full programme of entertainment for all the family.
One North East kindly funded an outdoor stage for local bands and entertainers, which included The Steels, Razor Sharp, Fables Last Stand and headliners Sound Ex www.thesoundex.com
The weekend of activities launched on the Friday with the Newcastle Vipers players, Saturday and Sunday saw fire-eaters, stilt walkers and lots of family fun. The whole Festival was topped off with a spectacular fireworks display on the final evening, which started at 8.15pm in Carlisle Park.
© Copyright Darren Turner
Over the weekend it was estimated over 5000 people attended. The event was organised in conjunction with King Edward High School, a group of students formed a project team and helped to organise bands for the event, they managed the process, and it proved to be very successful.
For the third year running an ice rink is being brought to Morpeth's Carlisle Park. GMDT, in conjunction with Barnabas Safe and Sound, Morpeth Town Council, Northumberland County Council, Northumberland Strategic Partnership and Castle Morpeth Borough Council, have organised the attraction for the 27th, 28th and 29th of March 2009.
The weather in March is ideal for the Ice Festival, clear blue skies, sunshine and frosty backdrop in the park. People will be flocking to Carlisle Park to sample the skating as well as enjoying the other family fun including face painting and local bands and the event climaxes on Sunday with a free musical firework spectacular at around 7pm!
The rink will be housed in the tennis courts and will run from Friday to Sunday, with 100 people being able to skate at any one time, there will be skates available, as well as a disabled skate chair. Experienced staff will be on duty at all times.
An exciting addition to this years ice festival is a 75ft long and 45ft high toboggan slide (see above). You simply climb up the stairs, sit in your inflatable ring and down you come, spinning and twisting. This is the only inflatable slide of this size in the world!
Alongside the programme there will be an exciting programme of activities running, including street dancing workshops, balloon modelling and face painting. This sessions are all free of charge and will be open for people to join in, however please note that it is up to the discretion of the leader to limit group sizes. The rink will transform into an ice disco every evening, with disco lights and music.
iThe festival will end in a grand finale on the Sunday, with a fireworks display beginning at 6.30pm in Carlisle Park. This show is being delivered by Reaction fireworks, which are one of the leading companies in the country. Entry is free but tickets will be issued when entering the park to control crowd numbers.
This programme of events has been co-ordinated by GMDT but would not have been possible without support from our partners and funders.
The rink will be open from 10am until 7pm each day and will be floodlit at night. Adult skaters will be charged £5 for an hour, including skates. The charge for children is £4, with family tickets costing £10 for a family-of-three and £14 for a family-of-four. Tickets can be purchased at the event location in Carlisle Park.
For more information contact Emma Cochrane at GMDT at emma.cochrane@gmdt.org or on (01670) 503875.
In February 2008 and for the second year running an ice rink was brought to Carlisle Park. The idea for the ice rink came from GMDT’s young persons interest group and due to the success of the previous year there was no doubt that it needed to happen again. This time is was to be bigger and better! The rink was double the size it was the previous year, with 100 people being able to skate at any one time
Alongside the ice rink there was an exciting programme of activities running, including graffiti art workshops, street dancing workshops, balloon modelling and face painting. The rink transformed into an ice disco every evening, with disco lights and music.
The festival ended in a grand finale on the Sunday, when GMDT set the skies of Carlisle Park ablaze with colours during the musical firework spectacular. The park was crowded with people who came along to enjoy the show, participate in skating on the ice and listen to two of the new up and coming bands, Razor Sharp and The Steels. There was also an ultra violet show from the KEVI jugglers.
As the anticipation rose, the crowd of 1,500 were invited to count down to the start of the fireworks display by Reaction Fireworks. After a count of five the fireworks commenced with a bang accompanied by Classical/Orchestral compilations. The scale of the show really impressed the crowd and it was reported they could be seen as far away as Amble.
The local community came out in full force to support the event together with others who had travelled from far and wide to attend the ice festival. The festival proved to be a huge success drawing over 3,000 to the town. Just watch this space for the next ice festival…………
For more information on the ice festival or if you have any ideas for the upcoming festival please contact Emma Cochrane at emma.cochrane@gmdt.org. To view footage of this event click on the following link http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0bg4FFscSOI
