Music and memories of the Fifties and Sixties will be celebrated at a free event in Blackpool on November 20 marking the town’s place in the birth of the British jukebox, thanks to National Lottery players.
The Winter Gardens, where many top rock ‘n’ roll stars performed, will host the finale of Jukebox: The Teenage Revolution, a year-long project focused on the teenage culture of the Fifties and Sixties.
Blackpool and Lytham St Annes were the birthplace of the distinctive British jukebox produced by the Ditchburn Equipment company and some past employees supplied memories for the project including Valerie Whittle to whom the event is dedicated as she sadly died recently.
Other people who were teenagers in the Fifties and Sixties and recorded their memories of growing up on the Lancashire coast in these pioneering years of popular culture have also been invited to the finale.
The event, which begins at 12.30pm with a buffet lunch featuring food of the period, is entirely free, courtesy of The National Lottery Heritage Fund, who have supported the entire project.
The finale will also include a chance to see three art installations, funded by Arts Council England and inspired by the era, including a virtual reality experience, a ‘choose your own adventure game’, and a hair salon with a difference.
From 2-3pm, there will be a rock ‘n’ roll dance performance with an opportunity to take to the dance floor and jive to some of pop’s greatest hits.
The event ends with free tea, coffee and cake and time for more reminiscing.
Those attending can also take away with them free maps showing the locations of many Blackpool coffee bars where teenagers would congregate and listen to jukeboxes back in the day.
The maps, which are also available at Blackpool Central Library and Stanley Park Visitor Centre, are the result of sessions run earlier this year by Lancashire-based arts and heritage charity, Mirador and Lancaster University Library, partners in the Jukebox project.
Anyone who has participated in the project is invited to the celebration event but should reserve their place
Others interested in attending should first email George@miradorarts.co.uk
About Lancaster University
Lancaster University is a collegiate university in the UK city of Lancaster and a member of the N8 Research Partnership: an association of the eight most research-intensive universities in the North of England.
Lancaster University is a highly ranked UK university with a global reputation for excellence in research and teaching. Lancaster is consistently ranked among the top 15 in all three major UK university league tables and continues to build a growing reputation both nationally and internationally.
About The National Lottery Heritage Fund
As the largest dedicated funder of the UK’s heritage, The National Lottery Heritage Fund’s vision is for heritage to be valued, cared for and sustained for everyone, now and in the future as set out in our strategic plan, Heritage 2033.
Over the next ten years, the Heritage Fund aims to invest £3.6billion raised for good causes by National Lottery players to bring about benefits for people, places and the natural environment.
The Heritage Fund helps protect, transform and share the things from the past that people care about, from popular museums and historic places, our natural environment and fragile species, to the languages and cultural traditions that celebrate who we are.
The Heritage Fund is passionate about heritage and committed to driving innovation and collaboration to make a positive difference to people’s lives today, while leaving a lasting legacy for future generations to enjoy.
Follow @HeritageFundUK on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram and use #NationalLotteryHeritageFund www.heritagefund.org.uk.
About the Garfield Weston Foundation
Established in 1958, the Garfield Weston Foundation is a family-founded grant-maker that gives money to support a wide variety of charities across the UK. The Foundation’s funding comes from an endowment of shares in the Weston family business – a successful model that still exists today. The Weston family have a consistent aim. The more successful the family businesses, the more money the Foundation can donate.
Each year the Foundation gives away its income and donations have continued to grow. Since it was established it has donated over £1.5 billion, of which over half has been given away in the past ten years. In the most recent financial year the Foundation gave away over £100 million to nearly 1,800 charities across the UK.
About Arts Council England
Arts Council England is the national development agency for creativity and culture.
We have set out our strategic vision in Let’s Create that by 2030 we want England to be a country in which the creativity of each of us is valued and given the chance to flourish and where every one of us has access to a remarkable range of high-quality cultural experiences.
From 2023 to 2026 we will invest over £467 million of public money from Government and an estimated £250 million from The National Lottery each year to help support the sector and to deliver this vision. www.artscouncil.org.uk
