Didsbury Arts Festival ended on a high note on Saturday night with an impressive display of home-grown talent – and a surprise guest!
Didsbury’s Got Talent provided the showcase finale to a week-long celebration of the arts which saw thousands of people flocking to more than 170 events.
Eleven finalists entertained a 400-strong audience at Parrs Wood High School with singing, music-making – and a performing dog!
The evening’s judges included former Olympic athlete and Commonwealth 800m gold medallist, Diane Modahl, local businessman and Director of Didsbury Magazine, Salim Uddin-Khandakar and Andrew Shakos, headteacher at Parrs Wood High School.
They picked 15-year-old songstress, Tasha Leanne Jones, as the winner. In second place was classical soprano, Scarlett Quigley, aged 13, while boy band, Illusion, all year 10 students at Parrs Wood High, came third.
And there was a surprise in store when John Pienaar, Radio 5 Live’s chief political correspondent, in Manchester for the Tory Party Conference, turned up to record the show and interview audience members.
He was so impressed by the high standard of all the performances that he featured the event on his popular Sunday evening show, Pienaar’s Politics.
Afterwards, John told organisers: ‘This has been a great event, thoroughly enjoyable. I have to say that all the acts I’ve seen here tonight are much better than most of those I’ve seen on TV on either Britain’s Got Talent or X Factor.
‘And what can I say about Didsbury? Many of my friends, in the process of moving to MediaCity in Salford, are planning to live in Didsbury. What a fantastic place! Has Didsbury got talent? Yes, it certainly has!’
Organiser, Debra Green, pastor at Ivy Church, Manchester, said: ‘We were delighted to have John Pienaar there. What a fabulous journalist he is!
‘This was a fantastic final. The performances were all excellent and we had a great audience. Many thanks to everyone who worked so hard to make this a success. We’d better start planning now for next year!’
Earlier in the evening, more than 300 people took part in a lantern procession from Fletcher Moss Park to Parsonage Gardens. Some children brought giant lanterns made in DAF workshops at Didsbury C of E and Moor Allerton primary schools. Others brought home-made lamps of all shapes and sizes, including bicycle lamps.
At Parsonage Gardens, lit by fire lamps, coloured lanterns and light sculptures hanging from trees, the audience was entertained by a shadowy cast of dancing nymphs and spirits with ghostly music played on a real piano under a spreading magnolia tree. The spectacle was created for DAF by local artist Mike Lister and artists’ co-operative, pa-BOOM.
Didsbury Arts Festival News
Totally DAF about Arts!
3 October 2011
Talent show closes DAF 2011 on a high note!
Didsbury Arts Festival ended on a high note on Saturday night with an impressive display of home-grown talent – and a surprise guest!
Didsbury’s Got Talent provided the showcase finale to a week-long celebration of the arts which saw thousands of people flocking to more than 170 events.
Eleven finalists entertained a 400-strong audience at Parrs Wood High School with singing, music-making – and a performing dog!
The evening’s judges included former Olympic athlete and Commonwealth 800m gold medallist, Diane Modahl, local businessman and Director of Didsbury Magazine, Salim Uddin-Khandakar and Andrew Shakos, headteacher at Parrs Wood High School.
They picked 15-year-old songstress, Tasha Leanne Jones, as the winner. In second place was classical soprano, Scarlett Quigley, aged 13, while boy band, Illusion, all year 10 students at Parrs Wood High, came third.
And there was a surprise in store when John Pienaar, Radio 5 Live’s chief political correspondent, in Manchester for the Tory Party Conference, turned up to record the show and interview audience members.
He was so impressed by the high standard of all the performances that he featured the event on his popular Sunday evening show, Pienaar’s Politics.
Afterwards, John told organisers: ‘This has been a great event, thoroughly enjoyable. I have to say that all the acts I’ve seen here tonight are much better than most of those I’ve seen on TV on either Britain’s Got Talent or X Factor.
‘And what can I say about Didsbury? Many of my friends, in the process of moving to MediaCity in Salford, are planning to live in Didsbury. What a fantastic place! Has Didsbury got talent? Yes, it certainly has!’
Organiser, Debra Green, pastor at Ivy Church, Manchester, said: ‘We were delighted to have John Pienaar there. What a fabulous journalist he is!
‘This was a fantastic final. The performances were all excellent and we had a great audience. Many thanks to everyone who worked so hard to make this a success. We’d better start planning now for next year!’
Earlier in the evening, more than 300 people took part in a lantern procession from Fletcher Moss Park to Parsonage Gardens. Some children brought giant lanterns made in DAF workshops at Didsbury C of E and Moor Allerton primary schools. Others brought home-made lamps of all shapes and sizes, including bicycle lamps.
At Parsonage Gardens, lit by fire lamps, coloured lanterns and light sculptures hanging from trees, the audience was entertained by a shadowy cast of dancing nymphs and spirits with ghostly music played on a real piano under a spreading magnolia tree. The spectacle was created for DAF by local artist Mike Lister and artists’ co-operative, pa-BOOM.
ENDS
MEDIA CONTACTS: Deborah Grace, press officer, 07979 908 871, press@didsburyartsfestival.org
Maria Stripling, DAF Director, 07501 465 510
Previous press releases:
DAF 2011 open competitions to showcase local talent
DAF 2011 Film competition is launched
Didsbury’s Got Talent launched
Festival Highlights Revealed
Packed programme shows Festival going from strength to strength
Read DAF Newsletters:
April 2012
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