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Summer Events at Touchstones

16 September 2024

Community, Culture

This summer, Touchstones took part in a series of vibrant community events, bringing creativity and culture to life. From the sunny Feel Good Family Picnics filled with food-inspired art and unity bracelets, to hands-on activities like kite-making at the Rochdale Town Hall Family Fun Day, there was something for everyone. We also celebrated the rich heritage of the region during the South Asian Heritage Festival, engaging families with craft activities and cultural heritage.

Feel Good Family Picnics

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Sun shined all throughout the Feel Good Family Picnic events that ran from 30th July to 2nd August 2024!

At the picnics, visitors worked with our Creative Community Engagement team and two of our commissioned artists Kyam and Aliyah Hussain to create a new menu, tell stories of food and even create some food inspired sculptures!

Attendees also had the opportunity to work with our Creative Learning team to make friendship bracelets. The theme of the events were Olympic game values so the team decided to make unity bands that could be in the colours representing flags and identities or just your favourite colours!

We learnt lots from our Local Studies team about the 5000 year history of the humble pancake and Rochdale’s successful record breaking attempt in 1994. People also got the chance to see our Mini Museum and hear the incredible stories about each object, including the Romans hoard of coins that were found in Littleborough.

We met hundreds of children and families across all four events and it was lovely to see so many people from the different townships. Thank you for the amazing turnout, we had a fab time! The picnics will be returning next summer so keep an eye out for more information…

Rochdale Town Hall Family Fun Day

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Our Creative Learning team were at the Rochdale Town Hall Family Fun Day. The team got hands on with an awesome kite-making activity, and helped create 200 kites!

These activities ran alongside other organisations including Skylight Circus, Rochdale Libraries and the Co-operative Heritage Trust. The team were invited to take part by Town Hall and were happy to be collaborating again and in the lovely new building. We would like to thank Town Hall for inviting our team and thank you to everyone who visited their stall – they even saw some familiar faces from their school workshops!

South Asian Heritage Festival

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Touchstones’ Creative Learning Team were asked to take part in the South Asian Heritage Festival on the 15th August.

The event was organised by Living Well Rochdale and took place at the newly refurbished Town Hall. The festival showcased the richness of South Asian culture through stalls and activities. The team had a great time making friendship bracelets with families that attended and hearing more about what’s going on around Rochdale. Thank you to Living Well Rochdale for inviting us to take part!