Come and visit JNR8 at the times listed below – to see the wonderful work created as part of this year’s Whalley Range Celebrate Festival!

Featuring work from our pre-festival workshops, the Festival day, previous festivals – and including creative creations from Manley Park Church and other local artists!

Come and join the Communi-Tea Party on Saturday from 12-3pm for art, music and food!

Celebrate Festival 12-6 pm on Saturday June 8th 2024!

Celebrate will be held at Manley Park on June 8th 12-6pm – with lots going on for everyone!

Click below to view the Celebrate Programme for 2024

Celebrate programme 2024

What to expect:

Workshops, 2 stages of Live Music, Displays, Performance, Market & Information Stalls, Inflatables, Climbing Wall, Food & Drink, Health & Wellbeing, Age-friendly information, Cost of Living and housing advice, Health checks, Tai Chi, Environmental & Climate news, meet MCC Neighbourhood Team, Face painting, Henna, Community Groups, Big Bike Revival Fix & Ride area: Win a Bike! and of course plenty of… ICE CREAM!!

Plus lots, lots more!!!

***We also have some free pre-festival workshops and a performance for you to attend!* *Come along to create something to display at Celebrate on June 8th***

Our theme this year is ‘Crossing Oceans’

At the festival, immerse yourself in artist Lotte Karlsen’s “Oceanic Currents” installation – large turquoise fabric panels evoking the powerful, yet serene flow of the sea’s perpetual currents suspended from trees. This ethereal fabric atmosphere draws from the delicate, minimalist beauty of traditional Japanese ink wash paintings depicting marine environments.

The festival atmosphere is further enlivened by Karlsen’s eye-catching promotional poster, vividly blending a traditional Japanese ukiyo-e woodblock style with modern, swirling waves in brilliant hues reminiscent of the island nation’s legacy of vivid mineral pigments.

Watch this space for news of our pre-festival workshops and more details of our festival attractions and delights!

We are always looking for Volunteers…

Celebrate festival – Getting involved

Hello All

The Celebrate festival organisers are requesting volunteers to help with this year’s event on June 8th at Manley Park – with the theme ‘Crossing Oceans’

If anyone is interested in getting involved, this could be in a range of ways:

– volunteering on the day e.g. a spell on the gate, volunteers food etc

– help with set up and take down

– provide prizes/vouchers for the raffle

– join the planning group

Please contact Carol – email carol.packham96@gmail.com – if you would like to volunteer.

Thanks in advance

Also – if anyone is interested in hosting a community stall to promote your local group or pay a small fee to run a stall selling craft items etc – contact Verity – the Celebrate Coordinator – at celebratewhalleyrange@gmail.com

Whalley Range Community Forum and Whalley Range Youth Opportunity Association invite you to join them at

Celebrate Festival 2024 ‘Crossing Oceans’

Saturday 8^th June 12 noon – 6pm

Manley Park, Clarendon Rd, Whalley Range, M16 0AS

June 8^th is UN Day of Oceans and our theme this year is ‘Crossing Oceans’, celebrating the diversity of Whalley Range and exploring wider climate issues. We look forward to seeing how our artists, performers and stall holders explore these ideas.

This is the 27^th Celebrate Festival and our principles remain the same.

We bring together a wide range of community partners in Whalley Range to put on an exciting day of free activities celebrating the very best of our fantastic community, with a focus on fun, creativity and wellbeing, but also looking at serious issues. In the run up to the event we run workshops and pop up events in schools and a wide range of community settings.

The festival is run by volunteers from the community and staff from WRCF and WRYOA, working with partners from other local groups, businesses, schools and statutory services. However we are grateful for the professional assistance of our project coordinators and artists.

Our Festival Coordinator this year is Verity Gardner and our Music Programmers are Chia Norris and Ben Price.

The festival is made possible by donations from individuals and local businesses, fundraising by volunteers and grants from funders including National Lottery Awards for All and Manchester City Council.

The Aims of Celebrate:

To celebrate the talent, diversity and resources of Whalley Range
To promote positive image and improve quality of life in Whalley Range
To encourage participation of different communities within the area and work from an anti-discriminatory framework.

If you want to get involved with Celebrate contact us at: celebratewhalleyrange@gmail.com or call 0161 881 3744

WATCH THIS SPACE FOR MORE DETAILS AND THE CELEBRATE PROGRAMME – COMING SOON…

Thanks to our funders!

Link to the Celebrate Report 2023

CELEBRATE FESTIVAL REPORT 2023

Scroll down further for the history of Celebrate…

The Celebrate festival 2023

Contact celebratewhalleyrange@gmail.com to get involved

All About Celebrate…

Celebrate is a separately constituted sub group of Whalley Range Youth Opportunities Association, an organisation made up of representatives of local groups e.g. Friends of Manley Park, WRYOA, Whalley Range Community Forum and others.

Celebrate Festival is our annual volunteer led event held in Whalley Range – traditionally on May Day.

See what the community thinks about Celebrate – and take a look at photos, videos, posters and programmes from Celebrate over the years – all the way back to 1998!

The aims of the group are to:-

– Celebrate the talent, diversity and resources of Whalley Range

– Promote a positive image of the area and improve the quality of life

– Encourage participation of the different communities within the area,

– Work in an anti-discriminatory and inclusive way (i.e. be low cost and barrier free).

The event is held in partnership between Whalley Range Youth Opportunities Association and the Whalley Range Community Forum.

We are committed to working with everyone in the community – especially newly established groups who have been supported to develop by the Forum and that all groups are represented to celebrate our diversity and showcase our local talent, building and maintaining links across the community.

We strive to challenge any negative perceptions people may have with regard to Whalley Range by encouraging active cross cultural community involvement in our age-friendly festival events, workshops and activities,strengthening community cohesion and encouraging participation from residents from all of the diverse cultures that exist within our ward.

A consultation was circulated about Celebrate: some of the responses are below.

Q1: How does the Celebrate Festival bring the Whalley Range community together?

Q2: Why is an event that brings members of a very diverse community together important?

An event which caters for all ages, young, old and in-between! One that has activities that are attractive to a wide range of cultures and interest groups.
Something for everybody. One of the highlights of the Whalley Range year.
Whalley Range has a diverse society, lots of religions and cultures and Celebrate Festival reflects this.
it brings rich, poor, middle-class, working-class, young and old together and those from other ethnic minorities besides English.
This is an opportunity for the vast number of small voluntary and community groups to showcase what they are involved in and promote their activities.
It a chance for neighbours to get together in an informal way. With so many people leading busy lives, it really wonderful to see everyone from across the community in the same place enjoying the activities, information sharing and each other company.
Community cohesion and integration must be encouraged to avoid people feeling isolated, abandoned and rejected. Events like this promote community cohesion.
In diverse communities like Whalley Range it is often not the case that people from the diverse range all get along. Often the different groups are isolated from each other and never really mix. Events like this are a good way to get people from the wide range of groups to talk to each other and share commonalities as well as celebrate difference.
It inclusive, everyone has a chance to get involved and it a chance to participate in free workshops
Because we are all human beings and Celebrate brings human beings regardless of their shape or colour together to have fun and learn. In full: www.whalleyrange.org/communityforum/celebrate-survey-what-did-people-say-about-the-festival/

Celebrate is an ideal platform for local community groups to host a stall to promote themselves and get people involved in having a say in their community

Celebrate Report 2011

Celebrate_Report 2012_CR

Celebrate_Report 2013FINAL

Celebrate_Festival_Report 2015

http://wryoa.org/category/celebrate/

https://www.facebook.com/pg/CelebrateFestivalWhalleyRange/about/?ref=page_internal

Read the latest Celebrate Report from 2018 here:

CELEBRATE REPORT 2018 FINAL SMALL (1)

The Celebrate Festival 2018

Celebrate 2018 in pictures!

Celebrate – the annual Whalley Range volunteer-led community festival

Read the 2019 Celebrate Report by Festival Coordinator Sam Sterkin here:

FINAL (3)- CELEBRATE-REPORT-2019-compressed

Celebrate 2018 in pictures!

Celebrate Festival Photos 2017

Photographs from our volunteer photographers who captured the fantastic atmosphere of the 20th Whalley Range Celebrate festival. Our theme this year:

The Heart of Whalley Range. Photographs from Anthony Morris https://www.whalleyrange.org/2017/05/celebrate-festival-2/

A short video capture and photos of the Whalley Range Celebrate Festival by Andrew Thompson

Filmed by Andrew Thompson Celebrate 2017 snapshot¦Read More…

Celebrate Festival update: Age-friendly marquee report

The Whalley Range Community Forum, MICRA, Manchester University and Age-friendly Whalley Range/Chorlton provided lots of information, activities, refreshments, arts and crafts and entertainment at this year Celebrate Festival on July 16th 2016 at Manley Park. Read the Report here: age-friendly-marquee-celebrate-reportRead More…

Celebrate Festival Report

Celebrate 2015 Festival Report â€œOur 18th Celebrate Festival took place on Saturday June 27th, 2015, with the theme Light up Your Life â€“ in recognition of the global International Year of Light Festival 2015. We are grateful to Rev. Robert Boulter for agreeing to let us hold Celebrate 2015Read More…

100% of our target raised in Pledges for the Celebrate Festival!

Firstly: Thank you so much to everyone who pledged their support! The community response to our crowdfunding project to fund some of the Celebrate Festival costs for 2015 was amazing! We raised an incredible £2,326 in pledges from members of the community, businesses and local groups! This went towardsRead More…

Celebrate Community Festival 2015

We have reached our Spacehive crowdfunding target! Thanks to all of our fantastic supporters. Report coming soon! Whalley Range Community Forum Whalley Range youth Opportunities Association Your Housing Group: Cash4Communities Rev. Robert Boulter: St Margaret Centre & Playing Fields Arawak Walton Mosscare Housing Group Read More…

Light Up Your Life! Celebrate 2015

To celebrate International Year of Light, we have six themes to the Festival Performance/Information stalls/marquees/displays: The light fantastic: dance, performance, music, movement, exercise, visual light show the light touch: technology, computers, photography, healing and therapy, health and well-being I see the light: celebrating diversity: representation from all of the faithRead More…

Celebrate Survey: What did people say about the Festival?

Q1: How does the Celebrate Festival bring the Whalley Range community together? Q2: Why is an event that brings members of a very diverse community together important? â€¢ An event which caters for all ages, young, old and in-between! One that has activities that are attractive to aRead More…

Celebrate Community Arts Festival

We are launching our Spacehive Crowdfunding project for Celebrate very soon! See the preview of the Celebrate Anthem above! And here are the lyrics so you can sing along!! “We’ve danced, jumped, skipped, drummed, played, talked and sang, eaten, shared, joked, laughed, made food, music, conversation and plans, Climbed