A free online festival kicks off this weekend to keep people connected, active and entertained at home.
Living City will stream live activities including music, yoga and mental health discussions from the homes of local Preston experts throughout lockdown.
The festival, organised by They Eat Culture and Mandala Yoga and Wellbeing, will be hosted on the Living City Facebook page.
This weekend’s schedule includes Zumba, street dance and meditation. Future weekends will include tutorials on drawing, hairstyling, mocktail and cocktail making, sewing, making and playing a drum and more.
Emma Lowther-Wright from Mandala Yoga and Wellbeing said the team wants to help people enjoy the activities they miss while having the chance to try new ones.
She said: “We are social animals who need to feel connected to others, we need to move our bodies, we need music and art to flourish. We feel that although we are physically distant, we can still be socially connected and we wanted to create this Facebook page and festival to enable that.”
As well as joining in with the activities, people are encouraged to get involved with the Living City project by sharing photos and videos from their lives right now.
Read more: Share your experience of social distancing and become part of Preston’s history
Ruth Heritage from They Eat Culture said: “We are creating a website documenting the real-life lockdown experiences of people in PR postcodes. We don’t want our story in the future to be one told from a London or Manchester perspective, we want there to be a local story told for us to look back on.
“We want people from all walks of life, from key workers to isolators, people who love lockdown, people whose lives haven’t changed much, and people who have been very affected. Your stories are important to us.”
To get involved, send a message on the Living City Facebook page or email ruth@theyeatculture.org.
Read more: Prestonians asked to ‘take a walk’ as part of Living City’s digital documentary
The organisers are also looking for people who have skills to share to host a workshop or take part in an online discussion. For more information, email info@theyeatculture.org.
This weekend’s Living City schedule
Saturday
Sunday
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Will you be attending the festival? Let us know in the comments.