Hackney to host second Dementia Festival for Dementia Action Week
Hackney will host a Dementia Festival for the second year running, from 16 to 29 May to mark this year’s Dementia Action Week.
The Festival programme includes a series of events including a Tea Dance at Shoreditch Town on Thursday 23 May, a Caribbean Tea Party at Hackney Caribbean Elders Organisation on Monday 20 May and Alzheimer’s Society’s Big Singing for the Brain event at the Copper Box Arena in Queen Elizabeth Park on Thursday 16 May.
The festival has been organised by members of Dementia Friendly Hackney, Alzheimer’s Society, Hackney Council, Homerton Hospital and local businesses, arts, leisure and community organisations. There are around 1,300 people living with dementia, in Hackney.
The Festival will celebrate people living with dementia and their involvement in arts and culture in Hackney. There are dementia-friendly activities such as a walking, cycling, and swimming ‘triathlon’, a park life walk, a ‘Positive Spin’ cycle event and dementia-friendly swimming. St Joseph’s Hospice have a day of activities including art, singing, twiddle-cuff knitting, yoga and information sessions and there will be dementia-friendly screenings of classic and modern films such as ‘Mamma Mia - Here We Go Again’ and ‘Love Me Or Leave Me.’
Click here for more information about the festival. For enquiries please contact Harry Johnson, Dementia Friendly Communities Coordinator: harry.johnson@alzheimers.org.uk or on 020 8533 0091.
“I’m extremely pleased to see the return of Hackney’s Dementia Festival, a programme designed specifically for people with dementia. Like last year, we have a great line-up of events, most of them free, to raise awareness and understanding of the condition and most importantly for people with dementia and their loved ones to have fun and be included and involved in their community. The Council is committed to working with our partners to make Hackney truly dementia-friendly for our residents, their carers, families and friends.”
Cllr Yvonne Maxwell, Councillor for Hoxton West ward and Dementia Champion
“We are really pleased to bring back the Hackney Dementia Festival for the second year running. Foremost, it’s a celebration of the involvement of people living with dementia in arts, culture and leisure. The variety of events reflects the diversity of interests, skills and hobbies that people with dementia can continue to have whilst living with their condition. Secondly, it’s a celebration of all the hard work Dementia Friendly Hackney members are doing. Record numbers of organisations are taking part and we hope that this event will also inspire others to get involved in the future too."
Harry Johnson, Dementia Friendly Community Coordinator in Hackney
I am really proud of the work led by our partners through the Dementia Friendly Hackney group. This year’s Festival is more diverse and thanks to the excellent work of organisations like Hackney Caribbean Elders Organisation, awareness is growing within more of our communities about dementia. It is important that we keep raising awareness in all groups, to ensure more people access services that are available to them.
