{"id":1000567,"date":"2026-06-02T13:45:17","date_gmt":"2026-06-02T13:45:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/1000567\/"},"modified":"2026-06-02T13:45:17","modified_gmt":"2026-06-02T13:45:17","slug":"festival-oldham-2026-young-people-take-centre-stage-as-manchester-town-of-culture-programme-launches","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/1000567\/","title":{"rendered":"Festival Oldham 2026: young people take centre stage as Manchester Town of Culture programme launches"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>Oldham championed its youth at Festival Oldham on Saturday, showcasing everything from bands to plays created by primary school children.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Jubacana, a youth-led Brazilian percussion band, drew crowds in with their  original music accompanied by energetic dance, whilst children from Burnley Brow Community School brought Sophie Tyrrell\u2019s exhibition\u00a0Oldham Wakes to life through theatre.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">With the borough facing rising demand and costs for children\u2019s services, the festival highlighted the importance of investing in creative opportunities for young people.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The Mayor of Oldham, Councillor Eddie Moores, said: \u201cWe have great music services, brass bands and actors.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cWe have got marvellous talent and such marvellous ways of developing our young people, and we should celebrate that.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The Mayor took to the stage to officially launch Oldham\u2019s Rising Up programme, aimed at supporting creative skills development and funded by a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.oldham.gov.uk\/news\/article\/2912\/oldham_named_greater_manchester_town_of_culture_2026\u201327\" id=\"https:\/\/www.oldham.gov.uk\/news\/article\/2912\/oldham_named_greater_manchester_town_of_culture_2026\u201327\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">\u00a350,000 grant<\/a>, after the borough won the title of Greater Manchester Town of Culture with the project.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">He said the 12-month programme will showcase theatre, music and art from across the borough, adding that sport will also play a key role.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Oldham\u2019s Saddleworth Cricket, Bowling and Tennis Club, set against a backdrop of rolling hills, provides young people with a place to play sport and spend time outdoors.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The Mayor added: \u201cWe are a fantastic borough with wonderful people, talent and organisations, and we should be celebrating that by rising up and making Oldham great.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The borough has begun implementing a Playing Pitch and Outdoor Sport Strategy and Action Plan aimed at developing outdoor sports spaces, further cementing sport\u2019s place in the borough\u2019s cultural calendar.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Alongside celebrating Oldham\u2019s young people, the festival also featured Oldham\u2019s answer to Sabrina Carpenter, a mystical lion and dancing pigeons.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"811\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/9fb81544-c490-45fd-9d78-95a17eeaed73-1024x811.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-175695\"  \/><\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"818\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/c0ee64cf-6379-4c72-9ca7-9366e60143e6-1024x818.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-175696\"  \/><\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Featured image: Jubacana performing in Market Place \/ Georgina Garness Copyright 2026 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Oldham championed its youth at Festival Oldham on Saturday, showcasing everything from bands to plays created by primary&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1000568,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[8813],"tags":[25818,748,393,34834,4884,2465,16131,269,1286,93,2764,16,15,16437],"class_list":["post-1000567","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-manchester","tag-art-and-culture","tag-britain","tag-england","tag-festival","tag-great-britain","tag-manchester","tag-mayor","tag-music","tag-oldham","tag-sport","tag-theatre","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-young-people"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/116680822065590443","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1000567","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1000567"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1000567\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1000568"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1000567"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1000567"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1000567"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}