Bounce Festival was South Ayrshire Council’s first ever Youth Work Festival.
The main aim of the event was to provide local young people aged 10 to 16 with an opportunity to engage in and enjoy a wide range of positive activities, including; live music, entertainment, street food, health and wellbeing workshops and Youth Voice consultation.
We recognised that engagement levels of young people aged 10 to 14 were lower than expected in our Childcare Hubs when compared to that of young people aged 5 to 10. Anecdotal evidence suggested that older young people were reluctant to participate due to the large age gap and their differing needs.
Our team considered how we might utilise the Scottish Government Summer Childcare and Food funding more creativity, ensuring this cohort of young people benefitted from the funding offer in a more meaningful way. We envisaged an engaging all-day event for young people at the end of Summer which provided exciting and aspirational activities which were rooted in informal learning – welcome #BounceFestival22!
Whilst attending similar events with young people, our staff reported the high costs of purchasing food and taking part in activities. It was important to us that every aspect of Bounce Festival was completely free of charge and that young people could fully experience the event, regardless of their economic circumstances. Hot food was provided throughout the day, along with healthy snacks including; fruit, cereal bars, popcorn and water.
We were keen that Bounce Festival provided a platform for local young people to showcase their talents in front of their peers. Performances ranged from young solo artists to a full fiddle orchestra! We also had headline performances from popular Scottish DJ’s, informed by the interests of our young people. We actively targeted areas in South Ayrshire where young people were experiencing challenging situations in their everyday lives. Thriving Communities staff identified around 300 young people who predominately lived in neighbourhoods recognised as statistically deprived within the health and wellbeing summary and the Scottish Index of Multiple Deprivation. We provided free transport across South Ayrshire to eliminate this potential, but highly likely, barrier to participation. Young people were also supported to attend by their Thriving Communities Youth Worker. The event itself took place at Ayr Academy, which is situated within our most statically deprived community in South Ayrshire.