Giant slinkies and parasols, a show that uses your nose, life-sized arcade games, 80s-style workouts, 90s dance hits, puppets, and have-a-go animation are just some of the attractions at this year’s The Full Shebang Festival.
This will be the fourth arts festival and ahead of the event in Mansfield town centre on Saturday, 2nd September, there will also be The Mini Shebang, a lead-up event packed with activities in the summer holidays.
The free one-day The Full Shebang spectacle brings outdoor performances, street theatre, and hands-on activities for all ages to Mansfield town centre. It is produced by arts charity First Art, supported by Without Walls’ Touring Network Partnership, and Mansfield District Council.
Events will be held in the Market Place, and at Buttercross (next to the library), the Four Seasons Shopping Centre, the library, and the Memorial Garden, behind the Old Town Hall.
Karl Greenwood, director of First Art, said: “We’ve certainly crammed as much as we can into one day for this year’s festival. From the feedback we get, we know what a free, fun day out on your doorstep means to local people.
“This year we’ve taken on board requests for more hands-on activity in the build up to the festival and on the day itself.”
First Art has teamed up with Four Seasons’ free family events programme B Club to deliver The Mini Shebang, activities taking place every Wednesday throughout August in the shopping centre.
They will include circus and puppet making, musical spaceships, and building giant marble runs.
Among the entertainment in the Market Place is a new show, Everywhere’s A Beach by Hikapee Circus Theatre, which takes place under a giant revolving parasol, alongside Look Mum, No Hands!, a Daryl & Co and Mimbre co-production that features acrobatics.
The Actual Reality Arcade by Matthew Harrison, which was a big hit in 2019, is life-sized arcade-inspired games including Tetris and Space Invaders, for all ages to have a go at.
Live music will be courtesy of Mr Wilson’s Second Liners, performing 90s club classics with brass instruments, New Orleans style.
Keeping with the retro vibes, Solid Gold Fitness will bring 80s-inspired workouts.
Musicians, performers, and storytellers are set to come together with puppetry and song in family adventure Tell Me A Story by HandMade Theatre at Buttercross — a show born of a project working with dementia patients.
Puppets are also promised at Mansfield Library when Lempen Puppet Theatre perform Cardboard Carnival, followed by a drop-in workshop to make animal puppets out of paper.
Other hands-on workshops to get visitors making, painting, crafting, and creating will take place in the Four Seasons at Shebang Makes.
In the Memorial Garden, Orchestra of Objects are set to bring their Sound Garden for people to make music on unusual inventions.
Rebekah O’Neill, Four Seasons Shopping Centre manager, said: “We’re delighted to be offering the Mini Shebang as part of the festival in partnership with our BClub, attracting families into the shopping Centre to make and do things creatively together. Our partnership with First Art enables us to help encourage more people into town through a range of fun and interactive cultural activities.”
First Art wants as many people as possible to be able to enjoy The Full Shebang and works to build on the access provisions the festival has on offer every year. At this year’s festival there will be Audio Described shows, BSL Interpreted shows and a roving BSL interpreter, Easy Read Guides for several shows and the festival itself, a quiet zone, noise-cancelling headphones to borrow, a fully accessible toilet available in the Market Place, and Access Ambassadors on hand to help where they can. Full details of all the provisions in place can be found at www.firstart.org.uk/tfsaccess.
More festival details can be found at www.firstart.org.uk/minishebang and at www.thefullshebang.co.uk
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