Homes across the city are about to host their own mini-festivals.
The Spark Arts Festival promises thirteen days of 'unforgettable' family entertainment, bringing a vibrant programme of performances and experiences to the city after a dark year.
Designed for children aged 0-13 years and their families, the programme is the most accessible ever, taking place from February 8-20.
The festival, supported using public funding by Arts Council England and Leicester City Council, is the largest independent children’s arts festival in England and includes the very best local, national and international theatre, dance, music, interactive workshops and live- streamed events around.
Specially designed activity packs will arrive on the doormats of every home taking part on each day of the 12-day festival.
Festival events
The 'Family Weekend' runs over February 13-14, with more than 30 live events, pre-recorded shows and on-demand performances to choose from.
'Bangers and Mash-Ups' with Mr Shay fuses cooking and beat-boxing in an online live-streamed kitchen takeover.
Sofas get lots of love in 'Sofa Dance and Sofa Acrobatics', and Festival poet John Berkavitch creates poems-to-order in 'Words Between Us'.
Minecraft fans also won’t need much persuasion to join Wizard Keen for 'Creative Play in Minecraft'.
Autistic and neurodivergent children can immerse themselves in the sounds, sights and scents of the rainforest in 'Tribe DIY', an empowering and unique sensory experience.
For the festival’s youngest audience, 'Mmm Ahhh Whoosh' has live songs, humming and singing for babies, toddlers and families.
In 'Secret Stories', Chandni Mistry and Rina Fatania will live-stream stories from the Belgrave community, and there’s map-making storytelling in 'Here Be Dragons'.
The festivities continue after the weekend with on-demand shows to watch at whatever time suits you.
Every evening from Monday 15 to Friday 19, Leicester Gallery will host online bedtime tales, 'City Stories'.
After a year of lockdowns and restrictions, The Spark Festival 2021 is the easiest ever to experience with fabulous festival fun happening on the sofa, in the kitchen and on any surface you can find.
With many free and pay-what-you-can events, the only problem is how to fit everything in! The event organisers suggest making a list of your favourites and booking your places now.
