Norfolk Youth to Lead the Way in Community Revival

Young people are being called upon to vamp-up the festival vibes this year and use their skills and creativity to direct and manage events throughout Norfolk that unite communities. 

Following the last two years of events being cancelled or curbed by the covid pandemic, ClearCompany CIC is launching YouthFest and inviting young people to inject their energy into festivals that draw people together with music, food, art, and imaginative attractions.

A YouthFest Forum information session will be held at Castle Quarter in Norwich on Saturday 21 May, where young people can drop in, find out more and explore how they can get involved.  Members of the forum will have the opportunity to direct, plan and run events around Norfolk with the first of the YouthFest festivals at the Hewett Academy on Saturday 9 July.  

Julie Briggs, Director of ClearCompany CIC, said: “We are so excited to have young people direct our events.  Our recent visit to the Hewett Academy was met with incredible enthusiasm from staff and students.  We are absolutely delighted that they offered to host us first and the students were brimming with great ideas about how to get involved.   Having our YouthFest information and registration day at Castle Quarter will be a fantastic opportunity to reach young people – particularly as the venue has developed recently to offer so much for this age group. 

“Our events unite communities in local, accessible areas and have benefited more than 200 businesses and artists over that last two years.  We aim to make future events work even harder and offer opportunities for as many community groups as possible.  Involving young people in our events allows them to learn and develop skills in event management, leadership, and teamwork, while also creating a festival they can enjoy and showcase talents they have – music, art, or dance”. 

The social enterprise toured Norfolk throughout the pandemic creating socially-distanced events that enabled caterers, artists and stallholders to continue trading, and communities to meet up safely in outdoor venues.  Now, ClearCompany intends to add to the community benefit its events offer by putting young people at the centre of creating and running events with something for everyone to enjoy.   Secondary schools are being targeted as host venues, which are most commonly in central locations with ideal facilities for the public, street food vendors, stall holders and performers.

Antony Little, Executive Principal at Hewett Academy said “Given what young people, in particular, have faced throughout Covid we are so pleased to be the host school for the YouthFest in Norwich.  Giving our students the chance to be involved in events like this is a slice of normality for them and we know they will approach this with the passion and rigour that we see from them everyday at school.   We can’t wait to see the ideas they come up with, and then see them being put into action in July.”    

ClearCompany proposes that the experience of planning and running the YouthFest events can account for Duke of Edinburgh volunteering requirements.  Each student will also be given a certificate to accompany their CV. In addition to bringing their own ideas, potential activities that YouthFest forum members can assist with include developing an event plan including entertainment and catering, overseeing an event budget, promotional activity, crowd control, littering and stewarding. 

The drop-in session at Castle Quarter will run from 12pm to 3pm on Level 4 beneath the Vue cinema and opposite Concina.  Young people interested in being part of the ClearCompany “YouthFest” forum are asked to visit www.clearcompany.org.uk/youthfest or contact julie@clearcompany.org.uk.