Intern Insights: Summer Family Day Recap

Summer Family Day 2024 was an absolute hit with both kids and parents alike! In anticipation of upcoming family events like Winter Family Day (Sunday 24 November), our Concert Promotions Intern, Megan Harrison takes a look back to July to show you what amazing family events are held here at Turner Sims…

On Sunday 30 June I got the amazing opportunity to help out on Summer Family Day and see the event first hand! Turner Sims and the nearby outside areas of Highfield campus were full of liveliness, music, and delicious food stalls. The day was filled with fun activities, music and performances that, together, created a day of musical family fun!

Throughout the day, the Turner Sims foyer was busy with face painting and crafts. Paper artist Nathan Ward ran an all-day drop-in workshop where children could create their own unique bugs. The face painting and crafts were extremely popular, and I saw lots of happy children with uniquely painted faces and others carrying around the paper bugs they had made.

The first event of the day was the David Gibb Big Band, which filled the morning with lots of noise in the main concert hall. I heard it was a really imaginative show! Soon after, there was a Big Bug Hunt in the gardens, where kids and families looked for all sorts of different insects on Highfield campus. The children were particularly keen on the stickers they got as a reward for finding all the bugs!

At the Community Stage, many local performers came to put on amazing shows. There was a great variety of people – we had a dance group and a local youth orchestra give fantastic performances. It was great to see Turner Sims and the community supporting these local artists.

Jham! was extremely popular, with the fusion of classical Indian dancing and more modern styles of music creating an exhilarating outdoor show. The audience was thrilled by the dancing and lots of people stood up and got involved in the dancing themselves!

In the afternoon, another show in the concert hall called JUMP was on. Following the creepy-crawly theme of this Family Day, JUMP, composed by Karen Wimhurst, combined field recordings of insects and amphibians with clarinet music.

The Puppetry and Conducting Workshop was held under the marquee. The workshop began with the puppet Pythagoras conducting for an accordion player, showing how his movements influenced her playing. After this, newspaper and tape were held out and the kids and grown-ups created their own puppets to conduct with! As someone who’s taken conducting classes, I think this was a really clever and engaging way of introducing conducting to children.

The final event of the day was Creative Beats Workshop, which ended summer Family Day on a high note. Led by Yetta and Emma, members of YES! Creative Beats from the Isle of Wight, kids and grownups played boom-whackers and hand percussion in time with recorded tunes. The energy from Yetta and Emma was amazing and kept everyone engaged, so much so that even the Arts at University of Southampton Student Ambassadors were joining in!

There was lovely positive audience feedback and families had an amazing time. The atmosphere the entire day was so vibrant and cheerful that I couldn’t help but enjoy myself!