Festival of Happiness

Settle Stories

WHAT do a plasticine man, a dead poet, a multi-coloured bat puppet, a lunch with a stranger, a cowfoot griot and learning to balance on one leg while moving your arms around have in common?

Answer - they were all parts of eclectic mixture which comprised the Festival of Happiness and the various ways of examining what makes us happy.

Considering the events in Manchester occurred the week before the festival, there may have been those who felt that to have a festival of this sort was perhaps inappropriate, however Settle has a reputation for resilience in the face of the after all, this is the community which defiantly flew banners during a flag festival to celebrate the community spirit even as wagons rumbled through the market place during the foot and mouth epidemic.

Therefore it was in a sense of solidarity with Manchester that the organisers went ahead with the plan to celebrate the human spirit and all that is good in the world by marking what makes us happy as individuals and as a community.

With 20 taster sessions and workshops by local groups and 80 per cent of events being free it proved a great way to discover more of what is regularly on offer in Settle and to try something new as well as take advantage of visits by world class artist who were visiting the community.

On a packed day there really was something for everyone.

Gill O'Donnell