OTHER PROJECTS

Ocean Road Mela

Last year we were one of the key organisations involved in the planning and delivery of The Ocean Road Mela, a fantastic celebration of diversity, culture, community and food held on the iconic Ocean Road, home to a great variety of restaurants.

We’re getting ready to do it all over again and are developing a fantastic free programme of entertainment with three performance areas – featuring local performing artists and community groups. There’ll also be craft activities, a drumming circle, aerobics, football, poetry and street entertainment. Not to mention 80+ stalls manned by community groups, charities, CICs, food vendors and traders. The Ocean Road Mela 2026 taking place on Sunday 9th August is going to be epic!

NECA Community Garden Funday

Last summer we held a creative funday at NECA Community Garden in South Shields. Our aim was to promote this fantastic community facility that provides activities for all ages around well-being, healthy food and nature. The funday took place on the first day of the summer holidays. We delivered, entertainment in the form of fun characters, Punch & Judy + magic shows, drop-in arts & crafts, live music and a juice bike. A great time was had by all. If you are interested in hiring us to promote your service/organisation and deliver a funday for all ages then get in touch, we’d love to hear from you.

Young People & Makers Project

Last summer, we matched young people from Bilton Hall Community Trust with skilled ‘makers’ from our Big RIver Makers Market Group.

This year, we have been working with Epinay School in South Shields. Epinay School caters for up to 225 children and young people from 4–18 years of age with a wide range of special educational and complex needs.

Our fantastic Big River Makers have been working with the students to support them to make their own handcrafted items, many of which will be sold at one of the South Shields Seaside Markets in the Autumn.

Our makers were:
Karen Jones from Create Better who was supporting the students to make jewellery. Tracey Emmett from Coastal Arts who was working with Kelly Beard Foden to help participatants create their own original artwork which will later be applied to T-shirts, tote bags and coasters. Lindsey and Louise from Scent & Soul who supported the students to create their own wax melts along with the packaging. Lesley Atkinson, a mosaic artist, who helped participants create their own beautiful mosaic pieces.

We had a great time with the young people and have ourselves been inspired by their ideas and the wide range of interests on display such as 90s heavy metal, holidays in the Canary Islands, moths, taxidermy and anime. We look forward to working with them in Autumn to create a fantastic stall display which they can take to market.

South Tyneside Youth Council

Sports, Culture & Media Event

The South Tyneside Youth Council (STYC) typically campaigns on a chosen topic for two years. The young people select their primary focus through borough-wide elections. During March 2025-2026, their chosen theme was Sports, Culture & Media. Create & Connect CIC have participated in two sports, culture and media events over the last two years.

Event @ Temple Park 2025
We had a great time taking part in this event which was attended by approximately 60-70 secondary school children from South Tyneside. Create & Connect helped deliver the sport and cultural programme of the day by offering music workshops where participants took part in vocal exercises, drummed on African djembe drums and sang together. We also provided paid opportunities for three young people to perform at the event.

We were also there in the main hall giving out information about our organisation and inviting attendees to give us feedback on what they looked for in terms of creative activity, services and experiences in the local area. It was a great opportunity to engage with other organisations and young people whilst exploring what the arts and culture mean to them.

We gathered our feedback in such a way that we were able to create a piece of music with it! Click on the link below to find out more about our FEEDBACK MUSIC and how we created it.

Survey amongst attendees of Youth Council event 1.7.25Download

And here’s what our feedback music sounds like when played on the violin

Jarrow Hall – March 2026
We were invited back by South Tyneside Youth Council to another event focusing on Sports, Media & Culture at Jarrow Hall. It was a fantastic day with a focus on the value of creating volunteering opportunities for young people in the sports, culture and media sectors.

There were insightful presentations from local schools and the youth council. Create & Connect CIC were there to deliver music workshops (with vocal exercises, percussion and movement) as well as to provide information on our volunteering programme.