Okehampton Community Garden has been awarded £3,001 from the Arts Council’s Let’s Create Jubilee Fund by Devon Community Foundation to allow it to host creative workshops to mark the Queen’s Platinum Jubilee.

Workshops will be held in the community garden off Fatherford Road on Saturday, June 25 starting at 2pm, with an evening barbecue and bonfire afterwards. All ages will be welcome to take part in music activities led by professional facilitators from local organisation Wren Music. These will draw upon midsummer traditions from across the Commonwealth, including flower pictures, drumming, fire sculpture, flower crowns and dancing.

The workshop activities will comprise: 

Drumming – learning traditional rhythms together

Singing – learning midsummer songs from across the Commonwealth

Dancing – learning group dances for the season; flower crowns –based on the Latvian tradition, creating and wearing headdresses made from natural materials and flowers

Fire sculpture – discussing and agreeing a shape to represent midsummer. This shape will be weaved from paper rope into a metal frame, then the shape will be set fire to at dusk.

 The day will culminate in an evening bonfire and barbecue, when the results of the workshops will be reviewed and enjoyed together. The project is funded with National Lottery money.

Linda Harper, chairman of Okehampton Community Garden, said: ‘This year the community garden is celebrating its 10-year anniversary and we are very excited about hosting more creative works in the community garden. We were thrilled when Wren Music offered to hold an event with us to celebrate the Queen’s Platinum Jubilee. We are very grateful for the funding from Arts Council England to make all this possible.’

HM The Queen Elizabeth II is the first monarch to celebrate a Platinum Jubilee, having overtaken Queen Victoria as the longest reigning monarch in 2015.