BD Festival

The BD Festival in Bradford is a free, annual event over two days, featuring street theatre, music, dance, creative workshops and a host of performers around the city centre. I've never been before. I find such things a bit overwhelming and I get a serious case of FOMO! You can wander around and miss everything, if you're not careful, because the performances tend to begin at the same times, on the hour and half hour, in different areas so either there is nothing much going on or everything happening at once! It's also a bit tricky to photograph, trying where possible not to show children's faces and always dodging people walking across and photo-bombing! However, I enjoyed wandering round and I did catch a few good little pieces of action. 

The lively singer was Sinead Campbell with her backing musicians. The Jamaican-Irish, northern powerhouse soul singer 'delivers uplifting catchy grooves with emotion-infused vocals and vintage touch'. She had a great voice. 

I think the dancer below was Dorine Mugisha - very expressive! 

There were various giant puppets, including 'Giant Baby Gareth' whose 'Norbert Nannies' had trouble keeping the pram on the straight and narrow. (They are, of course, a reference to the famed Norland nannies, one of whom looks after the royal grandchildren.)

In the Norfolk Gardens there were various interactive wooden games that were keeping lots of families amused. 

Urban Safari had a comedic act that encouraged the children to participate - lots of roaring! 

This was just a small selection of what was happening. If it all got too much, you could lie back on a beanbag and watch Cloudscapes, a 'sonic art installation'. I'd have enjoyed that but I can't wear a headset with my hearing aids, sadly.