The Ocelot Oxford and Newbury 121 July 2016 edition | Page 23

Cowley Road Carnival

o life for carnival
Company are performing KAPOW
Presented by Dancin’ Oxford and
Oxford Playhouse. Claire Thompson
of Dancin’ Oxford says: “Look
forward to phenomenal dance,
vibrant costumes and audience
interaction. Witness the inaugural
Superhero Games when three of
Planet Earth’s greatest superheroes
battle it out for the title of Most
Supreme Superhero...Ever. There’ll
be goodies, baddies, quick changes
and finally a superhero.”
The procession at the heart of
Carnival starts at 2pm from opposite
the Music Box and takes its theme
‘All the World’s a Stage’ from ‘As
You Like It’ in recognition of the
Shakespeare 400 celebrations. Many
of the schools and community groups
are busy designing and making
costumes based on the bard’s best
known plays. Pupils at St Gregory
the Great in East Oxford and Botley
Primary are planning costumes, music
and dance celebrating ‘A Midsummer
Night’s Dream’ while St Barnabas
School has chosen ‘The Tempest’ and
is bringing a boat out of recycled
materials. Wood Farm School is
busy making theatrical masks for
their group. Look out for 1 Afro
Fusion dance and Sol Samba too for
Carnival beats, colour and dance.
The procession will progress up the
length of the Cowley Road before
finishing at The Church of St Mary &
St John, and here you can explore
the Discovery area where drama
meets science and history.
Pitt Rivers will be there with
exhibits you can handle from
the Oxford University Museums’
collections, take part in a science
demonstration, climb the tower for
a bird’s eye view of Carnival. And
don’t miss pop up performances of
Midsummer Night’s Dream ballet
from Yuka Kodama Ballet and

Prepare to be dazzled by tall lifeguards

extracts from Twelfth Night and
Love’s Labour’s Lost in the churchyard
from the Oxford Theatre Guild and
Oxford Shakespeare Company.
Oxford Brookes are celebrating
125 years of nursing education. Get
a health check and get your blood
pressure taken, practice life support
(resuscitation), use a defibrillator
machine, explore the ingredients of
blood and keep fit with activities from
the University’s Centre for Sport.
And last but not least …. Food!
The glories of festival food are one
of the great joys of Carnival Day.
The restaurants and bars along
the Cowley Road provide delicious
temptation all along the street, and
then there are all the stalls with even
more to try. There is so much choice –
dishes from Indonesia, Tibet, Nepal,
smoked, pulled and barbecued pork
and beef and plenty of Carnival
favourite jerk chicken, but keep room
for cake and ice cream. You can rely
on Restore for a restorative cuppa

at the café and in the oasis of the
garden.
Johannah Aynsley, the new
Executive Director for Cowley Road
Works, the charity behind the
organisaton of the Carnival says:
“Leave your worries at home and join
us in the streets for a celebration of
life, community, culture, diversity and
the arts. We are busting at the seams
with music from around the world, art,
spoken word, theatre performance,
dance, interactive workshops, learning
zones, family activities and global
culinary delights.
“There is lots to celebrate in
the 2016 Carnival, not least the
increase in the number of stages and
programmed areas to explore and
enjoy. We have improved the quality
of cultural content throughout the day,
the spectrum of performance and
activity will push the boundaries of
previous and set the tone for future
Carnivals to come.”
www.cowleyroadcarnival.co.uk

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