People enjoying the Southport Learning Town Learning Festival.
Photo by Andrew Brown (Stand Up For Southport)

The first ever Southport Learning Festival took place recently at The Atkinson on Lord Street. During a busy Saturday, visitors enjoyed a day of facepainting, bubbles, art appreciation, architectural history, magic, science and more.

Support was offered by the two Members of Parliaments, Patrick Hurley and Bill Esterson, whose constituencies include Southport and by Southport’s active business community including the Community Link Foundation. The Festival outlined the wide range of quality provision that is currently supporting and educating people of all ages in Southport to increase their knowledge, deepen their understanding, improve their skills and promote their interest in learning

Based at The Atkinson cultural centre in the town centre, the town’s unique local heritage was fully integrated into the learning programmes. By revealing the joy of learning and its benefits, children, parents and other adults all took part in an initiative to identify how we can help each other to thrive by learning together.

Students from the Ignite Youth Theatre

Activities ranges from a workshop with the drama group Ignite and a sing-along with the Octave Choir to joining in the Liverpool Anthem led Formby High School to a Science and Magic show. Alongside all this was a there was chess gaming and a table quiz in the coffee bar, face-painting in the Foyer and giant bubbles galore outside. The day was closed by the musical group from Southport u3a who got people smiling and dancing to the end of a very successful day. Everyone is looking forward to a bigger and more inclusive learning festival next year and would welcome the involvement of other local groups to help to celebrate their support for our community.