Award winning company, Festive Road - producers of theWalking with Giants parade - is in desperate need of a new work space in Milton Keynes.
“Our current Landlord has sold the building we occupy and has asked us to vacate the premises along with the other not for profit and charitable organizations,” said Yvette Lamidey, Chair of Festive Road board.
The company has just over one month to find a new home for its artists and all the fantastical creations it presently houses.
Simon Tipping, organizer of the annual Walking with Giants parade said: “This is actually a fabulous opportunity as we’ve been expanding for a while and finding more suitable premises was always on our business plans but not quite so soon…we don’t have much time to find somewhere.”
Over the past decade Festive Road have given Milton Keynes some of the most amazing spectacles: mechanical creatures, costumes, events and workshops in the community; including the famous dancing tea cups, the cycle powered elephant, full scale WW1 tank and stilt walking dinosaurs! The company is a real Milton Keynes success story with its roots in the local community and an ever growing national reputation.
Throughout that time Festive Road has been relentlessly supporting local events, delivering hundreds of inspirational workshops in local schools and reaching on average 5000 children and young people annually.
“The timing is not great as we are just about to launch into a very exciting new Arts Council funded production which promises to amazing and wow audiences even more than anything we’ve made previously," said creator and artistic director, Jessica Rost.
The company has many more projects in the pipeline including Paraffinalia, the annual midwinter festival on Campbell Park which launched in 2014.
They are looking for a ground floor unit - possibly an industrial or agricultural unit - with large bay doors, suitable for large scale metal and wood fabricating.
The company need a minimum floor space of 15x15m (10,000 sq ft) but would prefer to occupy something much larger. For the support staff, costume design and making and of course for the general business things they also need office space within the unit.
Ideally they need to use the space from August/September onwards so they can make the pieces they’ve been commissioned for this year but also to support their business plans for the next 5 years which may include letting space to other makers in their network.
“If there were a space for a café or associate business that would be even better as we’d have an opportunity for a partnership,” added Yvette. “Please share this with your local connections that may have or know someone who has space to rent which would be suitable for us?
If you can help, contact:
Simon Tipping simon@festiveroad.org.uk
or Yvette Lamidey yvetet@yvettelamidey.com
