On Saturday 25^th April, over 500 local residents attended the Cumberland Market Festival – a healthy-living themed event organised and hosted by young people. Guests enjoyed a fun-packed day of stage performances, activities and information stalls.

There were lots of activities, with local young people enjoying the sumo suits, bungee run, bouncy castle and rodeo bull. There was also a smoothie bike, where guests had to cycle to power their own healthy smoothie. Young volunteers ran a family activity stall with face painting and t-shirt designing, which was always busy with children taking part. As one local resident said, “there is so much to do, with lots of great activities for my children – a really fun day for the whole family.” There were sports and games for young people, such as the football tournament in the H Pod pitch. The winning teams were then presented trophies by the Deputy Mayor of Camden on stage.

Local organisations, such as West Euston Partnership’s WellFair Project, Green Light Pharmacy, Bengali Workers’ Association (BWA), Central YMCA and West Euston Time Bank (WETB), had information stalls with interactive activities and advice for residents on health. National programmes also attended, with the Challenge, Diana Award and Anti-Bullying Ambassadors talking to local young people about youth projects.

Alongside the festival activities was an amazing stage schedule, with local groups and young people performing. There was a huge audience for dance performances from local group Mix It, who got everyone involved with their interactive routines and One Youth Dance captivated the crowd with their routine of different dance styles. We also had a fantastic yoga class from FYA staff member Paula and a stage debut from the local Regent’s Park Singers. Singers Rebekah Lazarus and Hannah Hosseini entertained the festival with their performances of Taylor Swift songs. Rebekah also performed one of her own acoustic songs which had a great reception.

The festival wouldn’t have been possible without the hard work of the youth steering group, who put on a great event – with one resident exclaiming that: “this is one of the best community events I’ve been to in Camden! It really brings everyone together and was well organised and presented by the young people.” Meeting for three months, the young people worked as a team to organise activities, design publicity and recruit volunteers to put on the festival. They gained AQA awards in the process and built up their skills in event management, communication, leadership and teamwork, among many more. On the day, the group were joined by more young people, volunteering as event stewards to welcome and help guests and supervise activities.

We would like to thank everyone who attended the Cumberland Market Festival and all the amazing young volunteers, staff and organisations who helped to make this event a great success.