Can Samba & City Arts’ award winning troupe for Nottingham Carnival 2015

A huge gallery of photos of our award-winning troupe for Nottingham Carnival 2015.

On the 23^rd August 2015, following an arduous but hugely enjoyable procession around Victoria Embankment Park, Can Samba & City Arts’ ‘Flying Free’ troupe took home the titles ‘Best Troupe’ and ‘Nottingham Carnival Band of the Year’ for their amazing performance in the Nottingham Carnival parade.

Joining forces with new Nottingham-based carnival company Can Samba, we produced our biggest, most inclusive, carnival troupe to date. Its theme was ‘Flying Free’; a celebration of birds, bees and other creatures of the sky.

A fleet of mobility scooters gave people whose mobility issues previously excluded them from the parade the opportunity to get involved. Boasting specially designed “shells”, adorned with flapping birds and dangling flowers, these mini-floats the centrepiece of the troupe, attracting lots of interest and praise. They joined City Arts’ massive parrot, created last year by older people from Abbeyfield’s Millbeck House care home, Nottinghamshire Hospice and Radford Care Group.

Betty, aged 95, was one of the care home residents who helped to build the bird.  This year she was in the parade, piloting a flamboyant mini-float.

“Thank you for inviting me to join in. I had a great day feeling part of it all. So many gave me care; decorating the scooter and those keeping an eye on me throughout the parade. I’m looking forward to other activities!”

Young people who attended one of our Express Yourself courses processed with a dragon puppet that they created in workshops with local theatre designer Vic Potterton. Can Samba’s Ceri Howell led a band of incredible percussionist, including young people from the Bloco Notto Samba Group. Our dance group performed a vibrant and political routine highlighting the plight of our buzzing friend the bee, currently under threat from government policy on pesticides.

Can Samba is a partnership between artist and performer SaRena K and percussionist Ceri Howells. With support from City Arts, they successful applied for £15,000 of Arts Council England Grants for the Arts funding. The funding supported a series of costume making, samba dancing and drumming workshops open to people of all abilities that took place at City Arts over the summer. A team of brilliant volunteers invested over 1000 hours of their time bringing the troupe to life.

City Arts would like to thank everyone who contributed to this fantastic carnival programme. Photos by Video Matt, Kate Duncan and DenPhotography.