We’re bringing a country tradition to town. Come and take part in our version of a countryside tradition to help celebrate the start of the year and encourage our apple trees to bear lots of fruit this summer.
Apple pruning workshop with Sally Cunningham – 12-2pm – learn all about pruning apple and other fruit trees at this practical workshop with our Garden Organic expert! It’s free but please book in advance on caldmoregarden@gmail.com.
Mike Bethel will treat us to a beautiful performance at 2.30pm singing songs celebrating nature.
Arts and crafts for children – come and make some shakers to drive out the old year and the poor crops.
Hot soup, cake and campfire – dress up warm and join us in the Garden!
Caldmore Community Garden, Carless Street, WS1 3RH
On Saturday 4th November at 4pm we will be making lanterns and musical instruments to carry in our lantern procession, and at 6pm Ash Mandrake will enchant us with a live performance full of music and stories. We will finish the day with a campfire, so bring your own marshmallows and things to toast over the fire.
On Sunday 5th November we will gather at 5:45pm for our lantern procession to light up the streets of Caldmore – the procession leaves the Garden at 6pm and on coming back there will be a performance by LED drummers and Autin Dance Theatre with their amazing Out of the Deep Blue! All that in a beautifully lit up Garden open for everybody to explore.
The event is free thanks to funding from the National Lottery Community Fund, Children in Need, whg and Black Country Touring.
Join us for a spectacular day of art, nature, creativity and performances brought to us by Black Country Touring!
2pm The Zoo that Comes to You by Scarlet Oak Theatre – A family show featuring puppetry and live music! Come and meet these eclectic animals as they discuss their life experiences and the challenges they face in a rapidly changing world. A joyous journey featuring puppetry, live music and playful characters, Scarlet Oak Theatre welcomes people of all ages to join the conversation about animal conservation.
12-4pm Where We Growby Black Country Touring – four short performances grown from community gardens across the Black Country have been spread around our garden. Wander around and enjoy each one!
And as always – arts and crafts, drinks, home-made cakes and refreshments at our community cafe!
Scarlet Oak Theatre
Jasmine Orchard and Lucia d’Inverno met when training at Circomedia: centre for contemporary circus and physical theatre. Both artists bring to the company their experience from working in a variety of educational settings; youth theatres, baby sensory classes, schools and home education groups. With their professional experience of acting, puppeteering, directing and producing they have come together to form Scarlet Oak Theatre, a company committed to making theatre that is equally accessible and engaging for children and their grownups.
Brought to us with support from Black Country Touring, The National Lottery Community Fund, West Midlands Combined Authority, Arts Council England, Esmee Fairbairn Foundation and People’s Postcode Trust.
This Thursday we are celebrating the 75th anniversary of Windrush – join us for a community event organised at the Garden by Walsall Black Sisters Collective!
The event starts at 11am and finishes at 3pm.
There will be live performances, music, bouncy castle, cultural workshops, stalls, food and many more, everyone is welcome.
The event is organised with the help of Walsall Council and The National Lottery Community Fund.
Join us this Saturday at 12p.m. for a fun afternoon of craft activities, live music and games (we have an educational treasure hunt and quiz). See what we get up to at the Mens’ Shed on Mondays and the Womens’ Tuesday group. There will be live music from Trouble and Strife at 1p.m. and we’ll be looking at ideas to reduce, reuse and recycle. As usual, there will be homemade cakes for sale, so let’s help save the planet (and eat cake).
A week of creativity, music, poetry and performing arts in Caldmore to light up all the community.
MONDAY 1st November
6PM LET THERE BE LIGHT – SWITCHING ON CALDMORE COMMUNITY GARDEN ILLUMINATIONS
Time to turn on the lights! Infamous Arts have been working tirelessly to light up the Garden and the Alleyway and open the celebrations of our Festival of Lights! Come and admire the secret wonder of Caldmore – let’s reclaim the night!
6:30PM – FIRE PERFORMANCE WITH HELTER SKELTER
An incredible fire performance by Helter Skelter Arts that will light up the Garden with its flames and daring stunts! A great show for all the family. (Keep an eye out for the duo around the Garden as well, as they paint patterns and images in the air with their amazing LED props!)
TUESDAY 2nd November
4-6PM PAGE, STAGE, DIGITAL AGE WORKSHOP – Make your own animated spoken word poem
Bring your gmail, your laptop and your yearning for spoken word development into the digital age. Live spaces at venue workshop and also zoom places for the live workshop webinar – to register e-mail caldmoregarden@gmail.com.
6:30PM – OPEN MIC POETRY
7PM – POETRY MINI SLAM – 4 poets leading to 2 head to head final 3 minutes each
7.30PM – WORKSHOP POETS SHOWCASE
8.15PM POETRY PERFORMANCE – DREADLOCKALIEN
We are calling all poets and word mischief-makers to take part in Poetry workshop, Open Mic and Slam at Caldmore Community Garden! The event will be led by DreadlockAlien – the slam and performance poet and former Birmingham poet laureate as well as a host of BBC Radio 4 Slam Poetry – and will finish with DreadlockAlien performing his own verse on the Garden stage.
WEDNESDAY 3rd November 7PM – LIVE MUSIC – RSVP BHANGRA BAND
Veterans of Glastonbury, WOMAD and Boomtown – and now performing at our Festival of Lights – RSVP Bhangra’s unique blending of Punjabi Indian music with dance beats and mainstream pop has created a new and irresistible sound that audiences everywhere love and keep on coming back for!
THURSDAY 4th November
10am – 1pm LANTERN WORKSHOP WITH SAM HALE – for all ages
Come and help us make lanterns for our Lantern Procession on Sunday! We will be working with artist Sam Hale to create willow structures covered with decorated plastic – everyone is welcome.
7PM – LIVE MUSIC – NOT QUITE DEAD YET
Not quite Dead Yet have been described as “a tin of Punk Rock Sardines spilling onto the stage” – it’s a bunch of punks, old and young, playing a mix of their own songs and old favourites on ukuleles. What a treat to see them return to Caldmore Community Garden after a few years’ break!
FRIDAY 5th November
5PM – LANTERN WORKSHOP WITH ARTIST SAM MACE
Join us for a creative lantern making workshop delivered at the Garden in partnership with New Art Gallery Walsall. Drop in, no booking necessary.
6:30PM – A STRING OF LIGHTS WITH PETER CHAND AND FOX & ROCHA
As the nights stretch out and a chill fills the air, join us for a very special evening mixing storytelling, music, and song.
At the time of Diwali, what better way to celebrate light and brightness with an amazing and lively event for the whole family. We will be mixing incredible storytelling with beautiful singing in various languages, and the magical sounds of harp, diatonic accordion, and a host of interesting percussion instruments. Join us as we celebrate the light and warmth that is all around us, even at the darkest times.
SATURDAY 6th November 6:30PM – MY SHADOW AND ME – SHADOW THEATRE WITH DREW COLBY
My Shadow and Me is like a cartoon created live out of nothing but darkness and light. One person (and his shadow) meet and go on an imaginative journey where creatures emerge, engage and transform beautifully. Little encounters between characters are explored and tiny stories unfold. Many are funny, some are sweet. The ever fascinating and adorable hand-shadow bunny makes an appearance as part of a simple magic trick, and the show ends with a colourful and impressive finale in which multiple shadow characters appear all at the same time – made with just two hands!
SUNDAY 7th November
4PM PUPPET OPERATING WORKSHOP FOR CHILDREN by The Fetch Theatre Company
Join us for 4pm to learn with The Fetch Theatre how to operate scrunch puppets made by pupils at Caldmore Primary Academy to join in with the evening performance.
LANTERN PROCESSION (5:45pm meet at the Garden)
Meet us at 5:45pm at the Garden to join in with the Lantern Procession to Caldmore Green and back to show the beautiful lanterns made by children from Caldmore Primary Academy, Garden holiday play scheme, and people from all the community. We will light up the streets of Caldmore and invite everyone to accompany us on our way back to the Garden.
6:45PM PUPPET SHOW WITH THE FETCH THEATRE COMPANY
The Festival of Lights culminates with a bespoke puppet performance by The Fetch Theatre.
This brand new performance that doesn’t yet have a name will be inspired by their previous show, Insect Safari, performed here at Caldmore Community Garden back in August. Expect creatures that might that creep, crawl, fly, flutter and buzz, all inspired by a wealth of fascinating insect facts and international stories that voice myths and folklore of insects from the farthest reaches of the globe.
Doors open half an hour before performance time – café will be open with drinks and refreshments.
A great way to round off the summer with an afternoon of live music including performances from some of Walsall’s best live acts as well as leading national names.
The ever popular Alex Fawson will be kicking off proceedings as well as hosting the day. The afternoon also sees a performance from local legend Martin Breedon who will be bringing his band the Rustlers to enliven The Garden Stage. Fresh from her storming performance at the Arboretum in August as vocalist for Funk and Disorderly, Gemma Niles will be returning to the garden heading up her own band Katsu Cassettes.
Heading up the the M6 from Birmingham singer song writer, Jack Cattell will be taking the stage later on in the afternoon, for a rare Walsall performance, showcasing music from his new EP, Locked Away. https://jackcattellmusic.bandcamp.com/.
Heading up the bill, we are very proud to have the return of the amazing songsmith, story teller and all round national treasure Ash Mandrake, who will be sharing his own unique brand of psychedelic folk. https://ashmandrake.bandcamp.com
This amazing event is brought to you absolutely free and is hosted in the beautiful environs of Caldmore Community Garden.
The event starts at 1.00pm and goes on to 7.30. The garden café will be opening all afternoon serving up hot and cold drinks and a range of cakes and light refreshments. You’re welcome to bring your own picnic and there will be covered areas in the unlikely event that we have any rain showers!
The event is it’s very definitely family friendly, and there is a play area for young children along with hosted activities, so please come on down and chill with us, to round off our summer of great events at Caldmore Community Garden!
CALDMORE ACOUSTIC MUSIC FESTIVAL A great way to finish the summer. Refreshments available or bring a picnic.
Breaking news ! A late last-minute addition to our amazing lineup is the very incredible Faye Bagley. She has played before many times at the Community Garden and were delighted to be able to welcome her back. Why not check out one of her videos here https://youtu.be/J4QvldtvWMs Unfortunately Trouble and Strife have had to step down due to illness.
Although the weather is looking distinctly autumnal please don’t let this put you off coming. With have constructed marquees around the stage to keep the audience dry and there will be plenty of hot soup and warm snacks from the community café. We’re also running children’s activities in doors to keep the little ones busy!It promises to be a great day look forward to seeing you there.
Caldmore Community Garden 