Celebrating older age in October 2005 with a month-long festival for people aged 50+ in North Tyneside.
We were delighted to host the launch event – our tenth birthday party – at the Stephenson Museum on Saturday 1st October. It was a great success with over 1500 people attending through the day to enjoy the music, demonstrations, displays celebrating older age, as well as the free steam train rides and historic fire engines. Cllr David Charlton, Chair of the Festival Planning Group, and Alma Caldwell, Chief Executive of Age Concern North Tyneside, compered the afternoon, and with John Harrison, the Mayor of North Tyneside to open the party, and Leah Bell to launch the festival with songs to join in, everyone had a wonderful time. Mrs Lily Roberts was a special guest and helped us to cut the birthday cake made specially by North Tyneside Council’s Community Meals Service. Lily had been 80 on the launch day of the very first Age Takes Centre Stage Festival, and she was delighted to join us for her 89th and our tenth birthday celebrations.
It was a wonderful start and in many ways set the tone for the festival. Our attendance level was up to approximately 7,000 this year. Most events and activities had a great turnout – and in fact one of the problems we had this year was that some events could only take a limited number and got fully booked very quickly.
The four trips organised by ARP 050 with Chris Cooper Travel were quickly booked up despite running two buses on each trip. Trips are immensely popular and this year the feedback was very positive about the route and the travel arrangements.
The computing sessions arranged by Age Concern North Tyneside’s IT for All project were also considerably over-subscribed. Happily they were able to run a second session in each subject, and have run further sessions after the festival to meet the demand. It shows just how interested older people are in using computers to develop their interests – the courses ranged from the Internet from Scratch to Buying and Selling on eBay, Digital Photography, Turning your LPs into MP3s, and Paint with a Mouse.
Some venues were packed to bursting and host organizations like the North Shields Library Club and Whitley Bay Photographic Society resolved to use bigger halls next year.
Some groups use the Festival to attract new members – the Friday Craft Club at the Oxford Centre held two open days which were greatly enjoyed by participants, some of whom now come regularly. The ActiveAge Book Group hosted a Books and Coffee morning with a quiz, book exchange and relaxed conversation – everybody enjoyed it and the Book Group now has four new members, just the effect they wanted.
Other groups use it to showcase their achievements. The Forest Hall Local History Group, set up after a successful event last October, this year put on a display of photographs and stories they had gathered in their first year. With current photos alongside the old pictures it was a fascinating display and much admired in
Forest Hall Library. The University of the Third Age arranged for all its subject groups to display their activities in an exhibition just before their speaker meeting so visitors would be able to see the full range of their work.
Older people proved as keen as ever to try taster sessions, the croquet sessions were full, and tap and belly dancing tasters attracted newcomers. As a result of enthusiastic attendance at festival events Age Concern North Tyneside has set up a new regular Tai Chi Class in Wideopen and a carpet bowling club in Monkseaton, Tyne and Wear Museums may offer further silk painting opportunities, and regular snooker sessions may be put on for over 50s.
Walking in Northumberland and Tyneside attracted good numbers, with the guided walks around the Rising Sun Country Park (one on trees and nature, one on local history and one on healthy walking) being particularly successful. This year the Council’s Physical Activity Co-ordinators ran another 50+ Pedometer Challenge and 45 people counted their steps for the first two weeks of October. The winner, Frieda Tindall from Wallsend, walked almost 20,000 steps a day, almost double the recommended target for good health.
Fifty people went further afield and took the mini-cruise to Amsterdam. This year the price was higher but more was included (a canal tour and a welcome reception) and this proved very worthwhile. This year DFDS also offered a no-single-room-supplement deal as well which was a much appreciated by several single travellers in the group. It was good to see how easily and warmly the single travellers were welcomed into the Age Takes Centre Stage party for the whole journey. There were many requests to go again, or to go on a different journey next time.
The festival free film (‘Millions’) at the Whitley Bay Playhouse got a good review this year, and two of the shows put on during October received extravagant praise on the feedback cards – ‘Memories are Made of this’ at the Playhouse and ‘Great Expectations’ at the White Swan Centre in Killingworth.
This year the Age Takes Centre Stage Awards included a new category. In addition to the individual and group awards, there was an award for first time personal achievement to celebrate new activities taken up by people over 50. All the nominated individuals and groups are recognized and rewarded with a certificate, and this year’s winners were:
Older People Together Group – Hard of Hearing organization (HoHo) for their recent work setting up social opportunities and advice sessions for people with hearing problems.
Lifetime Achievement in Volunteering – jointly awarded to Arthur Bland for his work with Ashleigh School and Maria Mather for her many years of teaching swimming to all ages.
First Time Personal Achievement - Cyril Mobbs for his artistic achievements in later life
The Ceremony was held on board the DFDS ship Queen of Scandinavia, with Danish pastries served in the luxurious lounge and tours of the ship after the event. Councillor David Charlton and Alma Caldwell hosted the event, inviting Tyne Tees presenter Alex Watson to announce the awards, and the Queen of Scandinavia’s Chief Officer and Chief Engineer to make the presentations. It was a great celebration of the kindness, energy and ideas that older people contribute to the community.
Illustrated talks on Lord Collingwood, Tynemouth local history, Hebridean Highlights and Northumbrian Photography were very well attended and enjoyed.
As Democracy Week also takes place in October, this year we held an intergenerational conference called ‘Why Vote’, with a mixture of older and younger people, including some young people from other parts of Europe who were on an international exchange to North Tyneside. The Conference asked challenging questions designed to bring out similarities and differences in attitudes and experiences and stimulate discussion in small groups. Using the Council’s electronic voting system it was exciting to see the varying opinions projected almost instantly onto a large screen.
The congregation at the Festival Church Service enjoyed the wonderful music of the Salvation Army Band, good songs and a warm welcome, with a lovely tea afterwards. This year it was held at Cullercoats Methodist Church.
Everybody enjoys the now traditional favourite events, but it is always refreshing to have new events come into the festival each year. This year we were pleased to include the following:
VODA held a Funding Fayre specifically for older people’s groups, giving them the chance to meet funders, discuss projects and develop the skills they would need to achieve them.
Cullercoats Methodist Church hosted a week-long meditative space for people to reflect and relax with beautiful images and a huge mobile that drifted gently in the air currents. This event - Breathing Space – was hard to describe in the programme and needed more promotion to do it justice.
Tyne and Wear Museums hosted a range of events including for the first time tours of the costume store at the Discovery Museum. Two fully booked tours were delighted with the expertise of the staff and the fascinating items in the store.
Age Concern North Tyneside have run a Halloween Tea Dance as the festival finale for many years, but this year their Tea Dance Volunteers proposed to host a Trafalgar Tea Dance instead, to celebrate the 200th anniversary of the Battle of Trafalgar. With red, white and blue decorations and costumes it was a great celebration, especially with ‘Nelson’ and ‘Collingwood’ present with their hard-working crew!
So, instead of a tea dance the Festival Finale this year was a well attended Barn Dance in the Wallsend Memorial Hall, hosted by Churches Working Together. People came from all corners of the Borough for a memorable evening of laughter and cheerful confusion as we tested the caller’s patience in teaching the dances.
There were over 100 separate events and special offers for Age Takes Centre Stage 2005, some of which lasted right through the month while others were repeated to meet the demand.
With this size of festival there are always some events that don’t catch the current interest, and some that don’t go according to plan. Events that are not sufficiently clear in the programme, or venues that are usually ‘private’, or regular events such as coffee mornings, tend not do as well in attracting new participants. The best laid plans when the programme is put together can be undone by rain, a speaker’s illness or technical hitch – happily these were very minor this month and did not affect participants’ enjoyment of the events. Overall the month went extremely smoothly.
In many ways our tenth festival was very special, successful and greatly enjoyed. It was particularly rewarding to see how proud local people are of the festival as they become aware that no other area has one quite like this! The additional funding this year was put to good use, and some of the simplest things made a big difference – like printing the programme in colour and with pictures, framing the Award Certificates, and ensuring the right venues for the main events. As with previous festivals the goodwill and support in kind from all the organisers, hosts and sponsors was a key feature of the festival.
More photographs of the 2005 and previous festivals are on show on our web site www.agetakescentrestage.org.uk.
Our thanks go to North Tyneside Council for supporting the festival with a grant of £3,000 and to Age Concern North Tyneside for providing the Secretariat for the Planning Group. This year the Awards were sponsored by Age Concern North Tyneside and hosted by DFDS Seaways. The Prize Draw was sponsored by Nexus and North Tyneside Council.
We are already looking forward to the eleventh Age Takes Centre Stage festival in October 2006. There is always more we could do given time and funds! We would like to see more events in the North West of the Borough, to be able to resolve transport problems about getting to some venues, and to increase the diversity of new opportunities and new partners. We welcome ideas and offers for the 2006 festival.
The Age Takes Centre Stage Planning Group
6th January 2006