On 6th January 2007 the Voices Project held an all day event at The Forum in Norwich City Centre to celebrate Latin Culture. The day was designed to appeal to all age groups and we invited the whole community, over five hundred of whom came throughout the day, to join in the fun.
We started at 10am with a Family Learning workshop, where children had a chance to make masks, drums and all sorts and to take part in some storytelling. Following this at midday was the Latin concert featuring a Mexican band, a Mexican dance group, a Brazilian dancer, a Portuguese Keyboard player/singer and a Flamenco guitarist, who both played popular songs as well as performing some live improvisation. Many people gathered round the stage during this two hour entertainment extravaganza including a photographer and journalist from The Evening News, and some couldn’t help but break into their own Latin dancing. One person even got up onstage to join in.
The evening disco kicked off at 7.30pm. Between the concert and disco we managed to transform the main atrium of The Forum into a suave, Latino venue complete with big plants, tables and chairs, low lighting, a massive Noche Latina banner, flags from many Latin countries and a full-on disco with sounds provided by DJ Juanito, who travelled all the way from Liverpool to perform. The music was brilliant and mixed all Latin styles from Merengue, Salsa, Samba, Rumba and Tango amongst others. We had a large number of local Salsa dancers impressively displaying their moves and at points the dance floor was completely jam packed! The atmosphere throughout the whole evening was amazing. Loads of passers-by were drawn in from seeing how vibrant the occasion was and many people commented on what a great time they were having. All the staff and volunteers involved in putting the event on were stunned at how successful it was, if only we could do one every month! Maybe we should.