The Spark Children’s Arts Festival is calling for families of genies to join the ever-popular New Walk trail. This year’s trail is a day of family fun with a ‘Genie and the Magic Lamp theme’. Starting with some ‘genial’ musical fun, followed by the chance to show your creative ‘genie-us’ with The City Gallery’s team of artists.

Feel free to bring a packed lunch or you can enjoy a little something from De Montfort Hall’s foyer. After eating you’ll trail down to the Belmont Hotel for ‘genie-rus’ amounts of ice-cream, then return to De Montfort to watch Disney’s Aladdin.

Don’t wear your best clothes but do dress as a genie if you can (especially adults!) as there is a prize for the best boy and girl genie. The trail will take approximately five hours in total, beginning at 11am. Genies from seven plus can join in and tickets cost £5 each – baby genies in arms go free.

For more information please visit www.sparkfestival.co.uk, call 0116 261 6893 or email admin@sparkfestival.co.uk

11 June

Take your partner by the hand for a unique musical experience as Boka Halat presents their Afro Ceilidh at The Y Theatre as part of The Spark Children’s Arts Festival. Families can enjoy the fantastic fusion of European, Asian and African beats as Boka Halat lead us on a merry dance.

Boka Halat means ‘mutual inspiration’ and their approach is all about bringing together musical traditions to create new songs, new beats and new music. Five musicians come together to play their original songs and then lead the audience in a ceilidh with a difference. Square dancing, line dancing, whatever shape your dancing is – the Afro Ceilidh will make you get up and move your feet.

A great fun event that children and adults will love with wonderful live music, Boka Halat’s Afro Ceilidh is suitable for children aged 8 plus and will be at The Y Theatre on Friday 11th June at 19:00. Tickets cost £4 for children and £6 for adults. To book please call 0116 255 7066.

For more information please visit www.sparkfestival.co.uk, call 0116 261 6893 or email admin@sparkfestival.co.uk

2 – 4 July 2010 at 12:00

We Built This City places children in the role of architect, empowering them to construct their ideal city, and during the performance they will make buildings go up, pull them down, redesign them, extend, walk through, jump on, and reconstruct them. We Built This City is not a play… it is play. Polyglot Theatre bring their tour to Waterloo Terrace at the National Theatre for LIFT 2010.

Forget playing ‘Sim City’ at home alone, now children can realise their urban dreams in three dimensions with scores of other budding young architects in We Built This City.

Presented by one of Australia’s leading children’s theatre companies Polyglot Theatre, We Built This City invites children and families to construct a city from thousands of cardboard boxes.

Under the watchful eyes of professional building experts and accompanied by a live DJ, the only city limits here are in the mind, as participants are encouraged to let their imaginations run wild and create edifices as tall, wide and outlandish as they can. But whilst We Built This City is pure fun on one level, its interactive and collaborative nature also points out how the urban environment contains many interconnected lives, finally emphasising the impermanence of everything around us when the installation is eventually crushed flat by its creators.

The Spark Children’s Arts Festival is celebrating National Family Week, a national initiative championing family life. The Spark brings children’s arts events to the region, encouraging families to play and spend time together in fun, creative and interactive ways.

The first week of The Spark coincides with National Family Week 31st May – 6th June. The average family spends just 45 minutes a day together according to a poll commissioned by National Family Week last year. National Family Week encourages families to take part in events such as The Spark Children’s Arts Festival to spend more time together.

The Spark Children’s Arts Festival offers families so many opportunities to have fun together during its first week throughout half term and plenty of ways to get stuck in and try something different. From Babyfest at De Montfort Hall on 31st May to Olga Volt the Electric Fairy at Curve on 2nd and 3rd, Drum by Oily Cart at Embrace Arts at the RA Centre from 2nd – 4th June there are wonderful events for everyone to enjoy and each is interactive in its own way. There will be free events at The Spark’s Open Minded Play Spaces in Leicester’s parks ranging from storytelling, to playtime picnics and sculpture and art activities and plus a special visit from the Queen of the Fairies herself at Aylestone Meadows on Wednesday 2nd at 14:30.

During the Spark Festival the Belmont Hotel is offering special deals to families planning to attending one of the events. A family room is available to book at the price of just £99 per room per night for two adults and two children sharing. To take advantage of this great deal for Festival Friends, contact Steve Burton at The Belmont Hotel on 0116 254 4773.

For more information please visit www.sparkfestival.co.uk, call 0116 261 6893 or email admin@sparkfestival.co.uk

Today the Royal Court Theatre has announced that it will be producing its first ever family Christmas show. The show, Get Santa! will run from December 1 2010 to January 15 2011 and will be appropriate for audiences aged seven and up. The plot follows a ten year-old girl’s mission to find the perfect family and will be directed by Anthony Neilson with music by Nick Powell.

Dominic Cooke, artistic director of the Royal Court, said: “One of the most exciting theatrical developments in recent years has been the explosion of quality work for children and families. I’m delighted that the Royal Court will be bringing its bold and contemporary sensibility to a family Christmas show this year.”

The Maharajah and the Kohinoor Diamond will come to TARA Arts on Friday 7th and Saturday 8th of May suitable for 7 and 8 year olds.

A Anglo Sikh Heritage Trail production, The Maharajah and the Kohinoor Diamond tells the story of a Sikh King and the famous Kohinoor Diamond, which now sits atop the crown worn by the Queen at the State Opening of Parliament and major Royal occasions.

This thought-provoking stage dramatisation is based on the life of Duleep Singh, the last Maharajah of Lahore and King of the Sikh Empire.

At age 11, when the British took over India, Duleep Singh was deposed and sent to live in England. He was separated from his mother and The Kohinoor, the world’s largest diamond which was taken away from him to be included in the Crown Jewels.

Whilst in England, he was granted Scottish Estates by Queen Victoria. Adopted by high society, he was Christianised and educated in Scotland, but Singh continued to dream of a triumphant return to the Punjab at the head of the Sikh army. He formed alliances with Irish revolutionaries and the Russian government to no avail because Duleep Singh, the last Maharajah of the Sikh empire was left isolated and died penniless and alone in 1893.

The Maharajah and The Kohinoor Diamond tells the story of thwarted love, political intrigue and the machinations of The Empire and is suitable for schools performances and family audiences.

The company is a tight ensemble of actors, using physical and character led theatre piece, who story tell their way through playing many characters, taking voyages from the Victorian present to its past history relating to the unknown story of the Maharajah and the Kohinoor.

Fri 7th & Sat 8th May at 7:30pm
Tickets:£9.50 / £6.50 concessions
10:30am & 1:30pm, 50 mins
Address: TARA Studio, 356 Garratt Lane, London SW18 4ES
Website: http://www.tara-arts.com
Booking: 020 8333 4457

Tam Tam Theatre bring their lovely show for 2-5 year olds Little Hippo and His Magic Pen to TARA arts.

For his birthday Little Hippo received lots of beautiful presents, but it is Daddy Hippo’s present that Little Hippo prefers, a red pen. Inside the red pen are the most beautiful things in the world, but how to get them out…?

In this interactive version of the enchanting story Petit Hippo et son stylo maqique, by West African writer Alain Serge Dzotap from Cameroon, children will be invited to make their own use of Little Hippo’s pen.

‘Dramatic, delightful and -that rare thing- Children’s theatre which appeals to the very youngest, without making older and more sophisticated audience members feel left out.’ Time Out

‘Wow, this is the best show ever!!!!’ Iris, 5 years old, Balham Nursery School.

Tam Tam theatre are dedicated to creating high quality multicultural theatre for young children.

They are renowned for creating fascinating an unusual puppetry theatre to tell traditional stories. Little Hippo and His Magic Pen is the first story they have used from a modern writer.

Tam Tam Theatre have toured their imaginative children’s theatre shows to theatres and festivals in the UK, Ireland, Belgium, Spain, Singapore and Malaysia.

Sat 5th May
Tickets:£7.50, £6.50 children/concessions
10:30am & 1:30pm, 50 mins
Address: TARA Studio, 356 Garratt Lane, London SW18 4ES
Website: http://www.tara-arts.com
Booking: 020 8333 4457

Monday 31 May

Babyfest is back as part of this year’s Spark Children’s Arts Festival in Leicester and this year is even bigger and better. Bring out your babies on bank holiday Monday 31 May as De Montfort Hall hosts a day of play-centred activities for your little ones.

This year’s Babyfest will feature a Play Garden from the Pre-School Learning Alliance with all sorts of creative play. Even the littlest little ones are catered for, with special activities for newborns and babes in arms. Out in the gardens is the old favourite Messy Marquee, with paint, jelly and rice krispies galore – naturally! New for 2010 are two Music Marquees where babies can strut their tiny stuff all day long. The Chill Out Room is the place to take it easy and recharge those little batteries. There’s even baby shopping, food stalls and a tea room! Babyfest has it all. It’s baby bliss and toddler heaven. All the cool kids will be there! With a line-up including magical storytelling and fun soft play, Babyfest really is the only festival to be seen at this year!

Babyfest is at De Montfort Hall on 31st May from 11am until 4pm. Babyfest is for 0-4 years only. Wash down facilities are provided but dress for mess! Buggies will need to be parked in the foyer at the Hall in a supervised buggy park. Tickets are £10 each or £32 for a family of four. For more information or to book call 0116 233 3111.

The Spark Children’s Arts Festival returns to venues across Leicestershire between 31st May and 13th June. Visit www.sparkfestival.co.uk for more information.