Come gather in community to Celebrate the longest day of the year with craft, creative activities, dancing and rituals!
** Book your tickets here: https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/summer-solstice-community-celebration-the-salisbury-centre-tickets-156489992781
The Summer solstice marks the longest day and the shortest night of the year, where we celebrate the full blossoming of all life around us, and the ripening of the fruits of all that we planted in the spring
Aligned with the current Government Covid-19 regulations, this year we are pleased of hosting a variety of activities including:
There are limited spaces available, so it is important to book your slot!
We ask you to please read our Safe Access guidelines for attendees if you are coming to the centre in person:
https://www.salisburycentre.org/…/SAFE-ACCESS…
There are several sessions to choose from, and we hope one of these will speak to your wishes for the Summer Solstice this year.
We are unable to provide tea at the moment, so please bring along your own flask of tea and a snack if you would like 
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10:30am – 12:30 pm: Be, Play, Create: in the garden (Family friendly!):
Bring your children and inner-children for some creative playtime or being-time in the Salisbury Centre garden. This is a really open session – you are welcome to bring along an activity (a book, some knitting, felting, whittling, paints!), explore the garden, sit quietly by the pond, or play some running around games
Some facilitated activities on offer during this slot include:
– “Wooden Decorative Flower” Crafting space (see photo below): Learn to make beautiful decorative flowers out of sticks!
– Seed sowing & Seed Swapping with Hannah – learn about seeds, sow some seeds or bring some seeds to share and swap!
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12:30 – 13:30 pm Circle Dancing with Kate Daly (All ages welcome!)
Join Kate to celebrate summer through dancing! Circle Dancing is a mixture of traditional and new dances to music from around the world. Kate will teach each dance, so you don’t need to have previous experience. We look forward to dancing with you!
Note: If the weather is bad current regulation allow small indoor physical activities to take place so we might move indoors!
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14:00- 16:00pm: The Rookery Ceilidh “Share your creativity!”
The Rookery is back! Bring your creative offerings to share or just come along to watch, listen and enjoy.
In the traditional meaning, a Ceilidh is not just a dance! It is a community sharing of creativity – which could be dance, song, poetry, storytelling, or anything else! Join us around the fire, to share or just to soak in some creative magic. Do you have a song to teach? A tune to play? Some words to offer? We warmly invite you to this community space, where every small act of creativity is welcome.
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16:30 – 18:00pm : Fire Ceremony (With some optional chanting)
An opportunity to gather around the central fire to share intentions, prayers as well as to sing and chant together. This session will be co-led by some community members who have been learning to hold spaces for the community (as part of the Salisbury Centre community empowerment programme)
Francesco Benvenuti will also offer some opportunity to chant and harmonize together some simple sing-along mantras and songs.
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We look forward to sharing a part of this day with you, and may we each celebrate this mid-summer day with inspiration and joy in our hearts!
Donations
This event is part of the Salisbury Centre community programme and is offered free of charge as we want to make sure it is accessible to anyone. Any donations towards the Salisbury Centre are welcomed, as the Centre’s ability to generate income to meet its running costs has been challenged by the pandemic. There will be donation bowls on the day and you can also donate online on our donations page using the reference ‘Solstice’: https://www.salisburycentre.org/donate/
Many thanks for your contributions in advance.
Of course there is the challenge of Scottish weather, so please COME DRESSED FOR THAT! If the weather forecast is especially bad we will also consider moving some sessions indoor (in line with current Scottish Gov regulations).
Accessibility & Kids
The event will take place in the Salisbury Centre garden, which is two steps down from the main building. We do now have a disabled toilet!
Accompanied children are very welcome to join in with any of the activities, according to the suggested age guidelines for each session.
Please get in touch via events@salisburycentre.org if you have any questions about the event.