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Home > Food & Drink > Burn your bad news at the Pyre Parade

Burn your bad news at the Pyre Parade

By Caroline King - October 23, 2019Posted in : FEATURED-CONTENT, Food & Drink, Music

The Pyre Parade will take to the streets of Ipswich this Saturday (26th October), offering the chance to burn your bad news.

The Pyre Parade, The Rough Band, SPILL Festival of Performance 2019, image by Guido Mencari
The Pyre Parade makes its way through town (Image: Guido Mencari)

The Pyre Parade is an annual community event, hosted by The Rough Band, which anyone can join in with. Simply turn up with something loud to bang, such as wooden spoons on saucepan lids. Local people have been involved in Pyre Parade Skills workshops to help make props and the Pyre Choir has been busy learning songs to sing (and shout) during the parade.

This year, there will also be music and food, following the burning of bad news at Christchurch Park.

The Pyre Parade, The Rough Band, SPILL Festival of Performance 2019, image by Guido Mencari
Join The Pyre Parade and make some noise (Image: Guido Mencari)

If you live in Ipswich, you may have spotted large black dogs popping up across town. These dogs are guarding special Bad News Post Boxes (at Ipswich Museum, Dance East, Christchurch Mansion, Ipswich Central Library and the Pacitti Company Think Tank). Everyone is invited to write down and post their bad news into these boxes – bad debts, health worries, a sour relationship, or colouring in that went over the edges – whatever the badness, everyone can feed the beast!

This year’s parade will move west to east through the town, beginning at 6pm at The Think Tank on the High Street (next to Ipswich Museum). There a big noisy parade will form, to march the bad news through the town, accompanied by a Pyre Choir and special guest performers. Later, the badness will be set alight at Christchurch Park. Watch the flames engulf it, burning up the night sky and opening up space for a better future, before everyone is welcomed back to The Think Tank to share food, music and good times.

The Pyre Parade, The Rough Band, SPILL Festival of Performance 2019, image by Guido Mencari
The Pyre Parade finale (Image: Guido Mencari)

When: 26th October 2019
Where: Ipswich (beginning at The Think Tank, on the High Street next to Ipswich Museum)
£: Free

More info: www.pacitticompany.com

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