At a recent Dragon’s Den event run by the Radstock and Westfield Big Local, the good people of the community voted to provide funds to help improve the lighting at the Victoria Hall community building.
Caroline Green from Victoria Hall has got in touch to let us know about the positive impact the Radstock and Westfield Big Local funding has had.
“These lights have enabled us to book a wider range of events. We previously didn’t have
enough lights to light dance or larger cast theatre events effectively so couldn’t book
performers/companies with demanding technical requirements. This limited the sort of
events we could book. With additional lighting, more companies/performers are willing to
come here and we have therefore been able to offer the local community a better selection
of entertainment. We have also been able to improve our lighting of music events and
attract bigger name musicians to perform here, again improving the quality and range of our
offer to local residents. Over the past year we have programmed family theatre, dance
performances, puppet shows, storytelling events, and a wide selection of music events from
jazz and swing to Abba, classical and folk, all enabled and enhanced by our new lighting.
With more lighting we are able to provide more than just a basic lighting cover. We can add
back and side lights in different colours, providing atmosphere, change of scene and more
visual interest, giving our local audiences a much richer cultural experience.
Combined with the bleacher seating, local people now feel they are coming into a “proper”
theatre rather a village hall.”
“It is Victoria Hall’s mission to provide the residents of Radstock and Westfield with access to
a range of high quality arts events and experiences that will engage, entertain and inspire
them. Local residents had previously missed out on these types of experiences because of
the lack of a local arts venue. B&NES Council research showed that most local residents
did not attend arts events in Bath for reasons of cost, transport and relevance. We are
striving to provide a welcoming, accessible, well-equipped arts venue right in the heart of the
community that can not only provide entertainment for local people but be a centre for
learning and sharing that contributes to the well-being and prosperity of Radstock and
Westfield and strengthens our local community.
The local community deserves a quality, well equipped arts centre on a par with arts venues
in other areas and this project has been an important step in achieving this. We will aim to
add more lights over time until we achieve a full theatre lighting rig.”