Festive Fabuloso is coming to town thanks to £30,000 Arts Council funding

East Lindsey District Council is bringing Festive Fabuloso back to Horncastle, Louth, Alford, Wainfleet and Spilsby next month after the council successfully applied for Arts Council funding and were awarded the full £30,000.

The five towns will be brought to life with illuminations, street theatre and some crazy, creative, interactive installations as well as the ‘Fabuloso Organ’, which visited all five towns last December as part of a pilot project, a Shadow Puppet stage, a Digital Graffiti station, street performers, food and drink stalls and a brand new ‘Carousel Fabuloso’.

The Carousel is being designed and built by local sculptor, engineer and inventor Dave Cranmer alongside artists from Lumo Workshop who will be running a series of participatory sessions that will give local people the chance to get involved and help design the interactive artwork that will be appear on the Carousel.

In preparation for the event, the council has started running a series of workshops for children and young people across the district to create artwork that will be on display at Festive Fabuloso.

By the end of the workshops, around 350 children will have contributed to the displays for the tour.

Festive Fabuloso will visit Horncastle Market Place on Friday 2 December from 4pm to 8pm, then on to Wainfleet Market Place on Saturday 3 December from 12noon to 6pm.

The following week, the festival will visit Louth Cornmarket on Thursday 8 December, Alford Market Place on Friday 9 December and finally Spilsby Market Place on Saturday 10 December, all from 4pm to 8pm.

Councillor Adam Grist, East Lindsey District Council’s Portfolio Holder for Market Towns and Rural Economy, said: “Festive Fabuloso is such a fantastic community event that will really bring something to our towns, so I was delighted to hear that funding was secured from the Arts Council.

"The event is going to be fantastic for our market towns to flourish over the winter period, so I really do encourage businesses to stay open during the event in their respective town so that our community can make the most of it.”

Festive Fabuloso is part of East Lindsey District Council’s Vital and Viable project, which aims to work with local communities in Alford, Horncastle, Louth, Spilsby, and Wainfleet to protect, promote and preserve the towns by keeping them thriving, clean centres which are attractive places to live, work and visit.

Bruce Knight, one of the Creative Producers for Different Light and the Managing Director of Spilsby Sessions House CIC said: "Spilsby Sessions House and the Different Light Collective are delighted to be working with ELDC and the five towns on this project. We can’t wait to illuminate the town centres and bring a little bit of Christmas chaos to the Wolds! It really should be a unique event that will bring some festive cheer, creative community spirit and more than a little bit of silliness to these five wonderful towns in the run up to this Christmas.”

More information on the Council’s Vital and Viable project can be found online: www.e-lindsey.gov.uk/VitalAndViable