News from producers around Derbyshire

After many months of restrictions and lockdowns, we can't wait to start welcoming you back to the Barn from next Monday.

Outdoor hospitality venues are permitted to re-open from Monday 12th April, and in preparation for this, we are delighted to announce that we are now taking bookings for our outdoor courtyard space, where you will be seated under gazebos. Indoor seating will become available again at a later date, subject to official confirmation from the government. 

Our opening hours this Easter

We'd like to wish you a Happy Easter from all at Derbyshire County Council. 

If you need us over the Easter period we're still here for things like community testing, libraries online, our Community Response Unit, household waste recycling centres, and for urgent social care calls.

Not all services are available on bank holidays, of course, and you can get more details about Easter services on the link below.

Have you engaged with Derby Museums online over the past year? If so, we'd love to hear your thoughts!

Derby Museums would like to find out how you have engaged with our digital activity over the past year and what motivated you to do so. This interaction could be as simple as visiting our website or social media, or even attending an online event. Your answers will help us to better understand who's engaging with our activities and to shape future programmes.

Enjoy our new online seasonal activities during the holidays.

Join us live from your home to Experiment with Art. In this free workshop for families, we'll be trying out different creative techniques to make artworks, using Anglo-Saxon and Viking sculptures from our collection as inspiration.

Click to find out more

The charitable trust which manages two swimming pools in the city is starting a phased re-opening of both facilities to the public from April 12.

Lonsdale Swimming & Sports Trust manages Gayton Pool in Littleover on behalf of Derby City Council and also runs Lonsdale Pool in Mickleover, which it is currently hoping to replace with a new facility nearby.

Pre-lockdown, more than 3,000 people a week used the pools ranging from parent and baby sessions and children’s lessons to adult swim sessions and aqua fit classes.  

Grammy nominated Sinfonia Viva, the Orchestra of the East Midlands, is among more than 2,700 recipients to benefit from the latest round of awards from the £1.57 billion Culture Recovery Fund.

Sinfonia Viva, which is based in Derby, works across the region – performing concerts and providing opportunities for hundreds of people of all ages to take part in creative projects.

The Orchestra has received a grant of £36,000 to help the organisation recover and reopen.

One of Britain’s best loved TV actresses and former Eastenders icon, Rita Simons, is to star in Derby’s pantomime this year.

Best known for playing Roxy Mitchell in the long-running BBC series, Rita will be taking to the Derby Arena stage as wicked fairy Carabosse in Sleeping Beauty from Friday 10th December 2021 to Saturday 8th January 2022.

Beyond The Spectrum was a pilot project connecting professional, autistic poets and authors with autistic people from age 11 upwards across the East Midlands.

The project began with a series of eight free, weekly creative writing workshops, which ended in March 2021. The workshops were for autistic writers from beginners upwards, with separate groups available for younger writers and adult writers living in Derbyshire and Nottinghamshire.

Due to Covid-19 restrictions, all workshops were online.

We are holding some Easter events despite the ongoing restrictions. Many of these are online and all our activities are COVID-secure and follow the latest Government guidance.

Countryside events

If you’re local to our country parks at Elvaston or Shipley, you might want to join one of the self-led trails we have organised for the Easter weekend. There’s the Golden Egg, Hopping Mad Trail and Odd Egg Trail to choose from.

Derbyshire’s specialist child exploitation charity, Safe and Sound, has launched a new far-reaching programme in response to the increased vulnerabilities amongst children and young people to wider exploitation.

The charity says that increased isolation, online grooming and pressure on family finances during the pandemic has led to a rise in the number of children and young people becoming vulnerable to exploitation. 

Safe and Sound’s own workload has increased 50% in the past year and this, it fears, is only the tip of the iceberg.