On Saturday the 22nd April Project Manager Steph and Research Lead Chris headed off to Bunbury Mill to meet some of the amazing volunteer team who maintain the mill and open it up to visitors every week. The mill has a great programme of events from general opening on Sundays through to an active schools programme that sees children from across Cheshire visit the impressive working mill and it's beautifual surroundings.
We are thrilled that the Mill are a big part of the Souling project and will be hosting one of our performance events in the Autumn.
We will be working with groups of young people in the village of Bunbury to conduct local research, write a brand new song with Songwriter Virginia Kettle and stage the Bunbury play as an exciting promenade piece of theatre taking over the grounds of the Mill.

The final performance will happen on Saturday the 28th October with two performances, one at 11.30 and the other at 2.30pm. The performances will be free but donations to help support the Mill's continuing work will be greatly appreciated. Refreshments including Soul Cakes made to a traditional recipe will also be provided.

Big thanks to Virginia Kettle, our 'hands on the ground' who has brokered these relationships and helped get things up and running in Bunbury.

We can't wait!

We are thrilled to be able to announce that as part of the outreach we are conducting for the Souling project we will be sharing work at the Rustic Music and Arts Festival this coming July.
The Rustic Festival is a community spirited and run event with a national reach, bringing high quality folk, acoustic and roots music to Northwich every year alongside loads of activities for children and families.
We will be brining a very special workshop to the festival where children and young people will have the chance to explore and perform the plays themselves, create new performances, write songs and even collaborate on a brand new musical commission that we are creating!
We are really excited about bringing the project to this event. If you would like to find out more about the festival you can do so here.

Steph paid another visit to BBC Radio Merseyside's Folkscene programme last month to record an update on the project and pick some tracks to play on the air too.
Being able to talk on the radio about the project offers a great opportunity not only to talk about what we are doing here at Minerva but also to get more people 'in the know' about Souling, after all, that is one of the key aims of the project!
The show is pre-recorded and our edition went out on the 2nd April, the link to listen again on the BBC iPlayer can be found here...
http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p001d79l