Preparations for BD Festival 2024

Preparations for the 2024 BD Festival which starts this Friday evening (26th July) and runs through Saturday.  The annual Festival is held in the centre of Bradford around the mirror pool and Centenary Square and includes street theatre, music and dance.

Chill Out Zone

We've had some quite nice weather here recently.  It's been warm enough to just sit around and watch the world go by, or have a paddle in the mirror pool, or just lie back and have forty winks....

Reflections At City Park - Punjabi Roots Academy

A Bradford based organization teaching Bhangra and Bollywood dance, dhol drumming and DJ skills.  Punjabi Roots Academy have recently appeared on a number of UK television programmes including The One Show and Blue Peter.

Reflections At City Park - 'Irresistible' By Mind The Gap

A burning car, a motorcycle and singing Sirens suspended over the mirror pool were just part of the story in a performance by Bradford based theatre company 'Mind The Gap'.  The theatre company works with learning disabled and non-disabled artists as equals.  Incidentally, the performance took place in the mirror pool and the water coming down is nothing to do with the mirror pool fountains it's genuine rain.

Reflections At City Park - Brazilian Samba Parade

I spent an enjoyable day yesterday at the Reflections event, a bringing together of local  dance artists, musicians and street theatre performers at City Park in the centre of Bradford.  I am really starting the wrong way around here as this is a picture of the final outdoor event of the day, a Samba Parade from City Park to St. George's Hall (where the entertainment continued indoors with a world dance and music extravaganza to celebrate the 20th anniversary of Kala Sangam, the Bradford based South Asian arts group).
As you can probably see from the picture it was raining quite heavily at the time, the heavens opened during the final ten minutes of the day's performances.  I managed to see things through to the end though and went off to catch my bus thoroughly wet through (that's when I found out how abysmal my bus service is after 6PM, but that's another story really)!

Bradford Chesstival in the Park

International chess master Andy Ledger takes on chess players from the Bradford area at a the Bradford Chesstival, a chess festival held in the centre of Bradford a couple of weeks ago.  I was quite surprised at how big an event it was, with marquees arranged around the mirror pool, musical entertainment, and a number of international chess masters ready to take on local players ten or more at a time!

Mugenkyo Taiko Drummers - Bradford Mela

Appearing at the Bradford Mela a couple of weeks ago were Mugenkyo Taiko Drummers.  If I remember correctly they are based in Scotland but have trained in Japan under a master Taiko drummer.  The performance was absolutely stunning, with an incredibly deep, thunderous sound emanating from those enormous drums.

The Demon Barbers - Bradford Festival

I never got around to posting pictures from the Bradford Festival a fortnight ago.  I think this was my favourite band, but how to describe the performance.  Well, folk rock, but with clog dancers, hip-hop dancers and a bit of sword dancing thrown in for good measure, absolutely stunning!

Bradford Festival - Pearl and Deanie

I didn't get around to posting pictures of the Bradford Festival the other week, so here are street entertainers Pearl and Deanie.  To qualify for a free lolly you need to be able to tell a good (clean) joke, if you don't know any jokes, a song will do!  The singing stars are volunteer stewards for the Bradford Festival.

World Curry Festival 2013

A three day event of curry from Britain, India, Pakistan, Kashmir, Malaysia, Sri Lanka, Jamaica and Lebanon hosted at the City Park, here in Bradford.  Hot stuff!

The 70's Show

I was looking back  through some of the pictures that I took at the Bradford Festival recently and thought that this one could have been taken forty years ago, it must be that 1970's moustache and long hair.  What are they doing?  Just killing a bit of time before the next act comes on stage.

One Year On

     It's almost a year since the mirror pool opening ceremony took place.  People still stop at the poolside, even on a cold and wet March day.  I think this group were on their way to the World Book Day celebrations in Centenary Square.

Juggler

This juggler was part of the entertainment at the City Park on Saturday.

Brass Band - City Park

This brass band made some very pleasant sounds at the ice sculpture event on Saturday.

Whale Of A Time

One of a number of ice sculptures around the mirror pool in the centre of Bradford yesterday.  The temperature was around 8C, so the sculptures were melting fast.

Garden Of Light & Mirror Pool

The Garden Of Light from the mirror pool.  It seems there is always someone in the mirror pool, even at night.

Bounce For Bradford

Contestants warming up with their spacehoppers at Bounce for Bradford yesterday morning.  The event was organised to raise money for Yorkshire Cancer Research and to try and set a new world record for the largest number of people on spacehoppers at the same time.  Turnout was a bit on the low side, too low for a record attempt, I think mainly because the weather has been so poor lately, those that did turn out certainly had some fun though!

Little Rows Of Trainers

Little rows of trainers, or is that rows of little trainers, beside the mirror pool on a warm day.

Skyride 2012

This was a real family friendly cycling event which took place today on traffic free roads between the new mirror pool in the town centre and Lister Park.  The main aim of the event is, I believe, to encourage more people onto bikes, and with an estimated 7,000 people taking part in todays Skyride I would say it  has been quite a success.  I did manage a lap of the circuit myself on my folding bike and really enjoyed it, the rest of the time I spent taking pictures, which I also really enjoy, so a doubly enjoyable day for me then!

imove On The Street - Peadah

This is one of the entertainers at the imove event yesterday.  I recognised hin from a previous event in Centenary Square, his name is Paedah and he's from Dublin (I was curious about the name and looked it up on the Internet, apparently it's a variation of Paeda and it's Anglo-Saxon).  He says he loves coming to Bradford and thinks the mirror pool is a fantastic place, he did add that he was a bit worried about getting his shoes wet though!