Castleford indoor market was taken over during February 1/2 term week by the ‘United by Breaks’ event run by Hello Hip Hop and assisted by ‘that girl’. Over 300 local children from years 5 & 6 at two local primary schools took part in workshops leading up to the week which taught them about Hip Hop’s core elements of dance, music, graffiti art and beatboxing.
The children were invited to showcase their new found skills and confidence in a dance ‘battle’ to kick off the week’s activities which was attended by over 600 people from around the UK. Free workshops then ran throughout half term to allow youngster to have a go at beatboxing, emceeing and mixing (on the decks), DJing, breaking (dance) and graffiti art on the doodle benches.
On Saturday 22nd, the culmination of the week, the ‘Hip Hop takeover’ came alive with Cambridge based group Sin Cru arriving to deliver breaking displays with sounds delivered via their iconic van ‘Veloris’.
Professional street graffiti artist, Marcus ‘Hyro’ Brown, showed off his skills by live painting a new artwork within the old indoor market building whilst the children’s school artwork was displayed within the market foyer for all visitors to see.
Across the week, over 150 participants and their families took part in activities with some returning on multiple days and it’s estimated that at least 1200 people were directly enriched through participation or watching the activities. The week was enabled via Wakefield Council’s UK SPF money and delivered as part of activities to bring footfall and engagement to the market via events by ‘that girl’.
Check out the amazing round up video of the week’s events from Hello Hip Hop
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