St Anne’s Catholic High School for Girls pupil Angella Kurucova on a new festival for young people in Enfield

This Is Us is a new and exciting festival for young people across secondary schools in Enfield giving them the opportunity to showcase their talents. This is an initiative funded by LocalMotion Enfield and supported by Nexus and Enfield Council, where for the first time ever, we will have a celebration of performing arts on stage as well as artworks in a gallery exhibition.

It will take place on Tuesday, 1st July, at Millfield Theatre in Edmonton, with nine secondary schools from Enfield taking part.

I am part of the youth steering group made up of 23 students across Enfield schools who are organising the festival. We have had two sessions so far, discussing and planning our ideas in individual groups. It’s been amazing to see behind the scenes of how to organise an event like this – researching, brainstorming, the venue layout, allocating job duties for the day and managing the different acts.

I am also part of the documentary team, where we have been extremely lucky to meet professionals in theatre management and documentary production. We will be documenting our experience of the sessions in the lead-up to the festival, including filming the festival on the day. This will contribute to a five-minute documentary.

These sessions have been so inspiring. Sometimes, I feel as children we are too often told that we can’t be involved because we are ‘too young’, but these sessions have actively engaged me and my young colleagues, where we interact with each other as equals. This environment allows us to share and cultivate ideas in our way, as us.

I have been interested in performing and singing since I was a child. In fact, I currently attend a drama academy and sing in my school’s gospel choir. It helps me not only to act and sing, but also to connect with my peers, share stories and build my confidence.

I am so excited to see all the performances and hope that our work will create an annual legacy, where in the years ahead we can extend this festival to more than a day, in order to properly showcase Enfield’s excellent arts.

We look forward to celebrating with lots of you on 1st July.

I would like to end with this Pablo Picasso quote: “Every child is an artist; the problem is staying an artist when you grow up.”

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