#everyoneshistory
Gloucester History Festival is asking the residents of Gloucester to submit some of their favourite Gloucester based memories to be used in a digital memory box as part of the Gloucester Looking Up project.
Celebrating their 10th anniversary and the 25th anniversary of Heritage Open Days, Gloucester History Festival is working with the Heritage Hub on a city-wide digital heritage project, funded by Historic England, entitled Gloucester Looking Up which is a key part of the City Voices programme of the Festival this year.
Written, spoken and recorded, typed or filmed, residents are asked to share some of their most precious memories of Gloucester, with a view of some of them being included within the Digital Memory Box project. Residents will be able to submit memories on the new Gloucester History Festival website, once it launches in August, or in the meantime, by accessing the submission form available on social media (Facebook, Twitter and Instagram), that is sent to the email subscriber list, or by emailing to be sent the link to the submission form.
“Your memory could be about people, places, events, special family moments, celebrations or landmark occasions” says Dan Lusby from Squeaky Pedal, the company commissioned to make the Memory Box. “But really, we are looking for those very special memories, those moments in time, that are not necessarily connected to something big happening else where. It is those small cherished, blink and you miss them, memories that mean the world to you, that we are looking to capture. But they have to be connected to Gloucester.”
Gloucester History Festival celebrates stories of the past that are told around the world, in a way that is relevant to people today, but it is a festival very much rooted in Gloucester. Telling the stories of people from the City, who continue to make it such a vibrant, interesting, colourful and special place to live and work is equally important.
Gloucester History Festival is supported by Gloucester City Council and Historic England.
For more information, further images and to book interviews contact Beckie Smith:
The theme of this year’s festival will be Voyagers and Visionaries to mark the 400th anniversary of the Mayflower’s voyage to America in September 1620. Telling stories of discovery, migration, identity and discovery it reveals how journeys near and far have shaped our past.
Gloucester History Festival is doing everything it can to deliver some elements of a live programme across the 2 week festival which runs from Saturday September 5 to Sunday September 20 this year, but inevitably, due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the event will be much changed with significant online and digital contributions for the first time. A new website (www.gloucester historyfestival.co.uk) will be launched soon, and people are encouraged to check it regularly as content will be added on a rolling basis.
As part of the City Voices element of the festival, Historic England has made a grant to the city to inspire a citywide heritage response to COVID-19. Entitled ‘Gloucester Looking Up’ it will encourage communities to look up at the buildings, look up online, look up their heritage and ensure that Gloucester’s built and lived heritage is part of a shared recovery.
