MAI-E01-S3 hulldailymail.co.uk We d n e s d a y August 10 2016 5

How crowdfunding and coffeecups help prepare for take-offA flight-themed paradein honour of AmyJohnson will bring acarnival atmosphere toHull’s Hessle Road –and the #MakeHullinitiative is helping tomake it happen

F or an hour on the afternoon ofSaturday, August 20, 300 men,women and children dressed up asbiplanes, pilots, and moths –

replete with antennae – will dance andprance along a one-mile triangle in Hull’sold fishing quarter in the west of the city.

As many as 600 onlookers are expected tobe entertained by this flight-themed paradein honour of Amy Johnson, the pioneeringaviatrix who became the first woman to flysolo from the UK to Australia in 1930.

Hull is already hosting the Amy JohnsonFestival, which until September 6, butCharles Huckvale and Liz Dees, the cre-ative directors at Hull Carnival Arts,wanted to hold an event in the area whereshe was born.

Johnson first lived in St George’s Road –Hull Festival Arts is based nearby at Scrap-store Studios – and this crazy carnival willtake in part of that street, as well as HessleRoad and Gordon Street.

The festivities end at Newington Park,better known as Massey Street field to loc-als, where there will be huge aeroplanewings based on the aircraft Johnson flewin, and “pimped-up”, highly decorated chil-d re n’s buggies, honouring the local,1920s-era tradition of pram racing.

Community groups are working on othersmall-scale floats, including a go-kart.

Mr Huckvale, whose company oversawthe World of Colour Parade at the FreedomFestival two years ago, said: “T here’s somevery big constructions that are based onbicycles and some backpack creations thatwill join the route later on.

“Often, the events we’ve done in the pasthave been city centre based.

“This is an area of lower participation inthe arts, so we wanted to do something ona local community scale.”

However, Perambulation: The Amy John-son Parade, to give it its full title, hasproved expensive, and even an Arts Coun-cil grant of almost £15,000 has not coveredall of the costs.

Hull Carnival Arts has turned to crowd-funding platform Spacehive to raise anadditional £2,000 to fund outreach work-shops where artists work with community

groups to make the floats and costumes.The fundraising is part of the #MakeHull

“h ive ”, which sees local businesses, suchas Beal Homes and MKM Building Sup-plies, known as Hull Pioneers, match con-tributions made from small or individuald o n o r s.

“When people turn up to the workshopsthey get to have a go at making these out-fits, which even include a bird of preycharacter, rather than just randomly makeanything that they feel like doing,” said MrHuckvale. “This will be a high-quality,art-directed spectacle.

“And there are plenty of surprises that weare saving for the day.”

The difficulty of fundraising is somethingJohnson knew about all too well.

At first, she failed to get enough moneytogether for her solo flight.

Eventually, Johnson’s father and an oilmagnate, Lord Wakefield, covered the £600cost of buying a used DH Gypsy Moth,which took her the 11,000 miles from Croy-don in South London to Darwin in Aus-tralia’s Northern Territory.

The money from the Pioneers will meanHull Carnival Arts will not have to scrapearound in a similar fashion to hold a funday in honour of the great lady.

For project creators who did not receive aCity of Culture grant, this is an oppor-tunity to tap into a whole new way offunding their ideas.

On Tuesday, August 23, a communitycrowdfunding workshop will take place atFruit, 62-63 Humber Street, when Space-hive will teach people how to run a cam-paign on its site for anything from puttingon street festivals to livening up poorlymaintained parks.

You can sign up for free at www.event-b r i t e. c o. u k / e / c rowd f u n d i n g - wo rk -s h o p - h u l l - t i cke t s - 2 6 8 1 9 8 5 9 9 2 3

If you have a great idea to help transformHull, upload your idea at www.space-hive.com/makehull, start crowdfundingand you could receive a pledge of up to£5,000 from the #MakeHull campaign tohelp you achieve your goal.

BUSINESS

“This is an area of lowerparticipation in the arts, sowe wanted to do somethingon a local community scale

Charles Huckvale

CREATIVE: Preparations for Perambulation: The Amy Johnson Parade.PERK: Staff at Starbucks in St Stephen’s, Hull, wherethe #MakeHull initiative is being supported.

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