Thursday 15th February 2PM – 6:30PM

Join us for the next ‘Taste of Yeovil’ event! We are partnering up with Love Yeovil and Yeovil Country Park to bring you this year’s Lantern Parade with a celebration of the Somerset ‘Wassail’ tradition and many family friendly creative activities here in Yeovil.

2pm – Creative workshops
4.30pm – Lantern Parade
5.30pm – Wassail Ceremony

From 2PM there will be an array of creative workshops to participate in, including charcoal making and print creation, lantern making, drumming workshops, and fireside cooking. These workshops are free of charge and for all ages and ranges of ability so we hope everyone can find something that really makes their night.

At 4:30PM we will hold the popular annual lantern parade, starting at Petters Way and making our way together to Penn Hill community Orchard. Yeovil College art students will be leading the parade with lanterns they have made inspired by food.

After the parade at 5:30PM the wassail ceremony will be held at Penn Hill in Yeovil country park where there will be a blessing of the community orchard.

The term “wassail” comes from Old English wes hál or waes hael, meaning ‘be thou hale‘, which in turn means ‘be in good health’ or ‘be fortunate’, and is traditionally a time to bless the orchards in hope of a good harvest for the year to come! Although historically celebrated on Twelfth Night, modern day wassails are usually held January to February, and we couldn’t resist including this event in the Taste of Yeovil programme!

Don’t forget to dress warm and wear appropriate footwear for a woodland
walk!

Come in to Yeovil Art Space, (Unit 13-15 Vicarage Walk Quedam Shopping Centre, BA20 1EU) OR Ninesprings cafe and collect your free lantern making kit!

This kit includes 10 sticks, tissue paper and an LED tealight, along with a copy of the instructions!

They’re going fast so better be quick!

Of course you may use your own resources to make a lantern for this event, but the kits make the process easier (especially if it’s your first time making one)!

This event has been funded by Abri and Yeovil Town Council and is part of the Taste of
Yeovil programme and the wider Story of Yeovil project which has been generously funded
by National Lottery Heritage Fund.

Story of Yeovil is coordinated by Yeovil Art Space on behalf of the Yeovil Art and Heritage Working Group and aims to gather stories from diverse perspectives in the town’s heritage and history through creativity and storytelling.

Saturday 18 November / 6pm – 8pm

Come and dance with us in the Quedam! Join us for the finale to Sound of Yeovil – a Silent Disco!  Limited spaces, first come first served.

Partnering with EPS Yeovil, guest DJs local to Yeovil will bring together three channels of music to stream through your headphones. There will be music for all ages, including familiar songs, pop, reggae, drum & bass, techno and more… come and dance with us here in the Quedam Shopping Centre!

Taking place in partnership with the Christmas Light Switch on event, we are inviting you, the Yeovil community, to join us for this finale event to the Sound of Yeovil programme, as part of the Story of Yeovil project and with funding support from The National Lottery Heritage Fund the Silent Disco is free of charge if you book in advance.

On the day of the event please head to EPS Yeovil to collect your headset. Headset collection begins at 5pm, so come early to avoid any queues.  Kindly ensure you bring £20 cash deposit for each headset, which will be promptly refunded upon return of your headset to us after the event.

Light Hearted!

In partnership with Love Yeovil and the Christmas Lights Switch on we are delighted to present the interactive light sculpture ‘Light Hearted’. A large LED heart which lights up when two or more people hold hands. The heart will be on display in the Quedam and then in Yeovil Art Space in the lead up to Christmas. This striking and symbolic piece was created by digital media artist Gavin Morris, founder of The Digital Funfair, and has been staged across the UK, including Boomtown Festival and recently at Arts By the Sea Festival in Bournemouth.

Love Yeovil and Yeovil Art Space are working in partnership to support the Yeovil regeneration project, by bringing art and cultural activities to the town centre that provide a positive impact to local business and community. This is one of many new initiatives in the coming months, including the upcoming Lantern Parade in February. 

The Silent Disco is a Sound of Yeovil event, part of the Story of Yeovil public programme, funded by The National Lottery Heritage Fund and delivered by Yeovil Art Space on behalf of Yeovil Heritage and Art Working Group.  The Christmas Lights Switch on takes place this year in partnership with Yeovil Art Space, EPS Yeovil, Yeovil Town Council and Quedam Shopping Centre.

Story of Yeovil Digital Map & Community Heritage Forum

Friday 10 November 3-5pm, Yeovil Art Space

In this special Sound of Yeovil event we want to hear from you and tell you all about the amazing Story of Yeovil Digital Map. Join us to explore this evolving map which will form part of the legacy of the Story of Yeovil project. Designed by Sound artist Stephen Ives and Digital artist Gavin Morris the map captures stories gathered from our communities through our Community Heritage Forums and the creative workshops we have been doing as part of Story of Yeovil.

Sound of Yeovil producer Stephen Ives will give a demonstration of the map at the start of the session and will share how the map tells the stories of Yeovil with sound, visuals and text and can be accessed from anywhere using your mobile phone or on a computer.

The afternoon is part of a series of Community Heritage Forum events. We welcome community members who wish to share their stories with us. Please bring your objects and photos to share! Light refreshments will be available and we are looking forward to seeing you there.

Pictured here to the left one of the many interesting conversations in out series of Story of Yeovil community forums. These sessions have taken place with support from Dr Rose Wallace and Dr Laura Harrison from the Regional History Centre at the University of West of England and with fantastic input from those who have come along to share their stories. Dr Rose Wallace will be joining us for this Share your Stories event.

This is a FREE event and open to everyone but please book your place. Click on the link below!

Click here to book

More about the Map…

We are really excited to see the development of this audio-visual map developed by Gavin Morris and Stephen Ives for the Sound of Yeovil project.

It is built using Roundware – an actively-developed open-source project developed by Halsey Burgund. Roundware was initially developed for sound art installations, but has since been used for innovative museum audio tours as well as other educational purposes. It lets you collect audio using a smartphone or web access, upload it to a central point along with images and text and then play it back.

This map will serve as a real legacy for the Story of Yeovil project, recording and sharing many stories from our town and accessible to the Yeovil community near and far.

Build your own bluetooth speaker in a festival beer mug from scratch!

Join sound artist/producer Stephen Ives (aka Farmer Glitch) from EPS Yeovil (eastvilleproject.org.uk) to build a hand-held amplifier/speaker sound system in a plastic festival pint mug, with either a Bluetooth or mini-jack connection.

You will learn to solder boards, switches and speakers into place, creating a unique and useful souvenir to take home with you!

No experience is required, suitable for aged 16 and above.

Booking is now for this event – if you are interested in future events like this please sign up to our Mailing list here.

Saturday 21 October / 1-3.30pm at Yeovil Art Space

£15 each, all materials included.

Book here (Booking now closed for this event)