North Kent College were the proud sponsors for the second year running, of Dartford Festival’s Community stage. The two day event took place on the 15th and 16th July at Central Park in Dartford and attracted thousands of visitors.

North Kent College were delighted to be invited to again be the Community stage sponsor where many local community acts including local schools, dance schools and leisure centres came together to showcase their talents. This included North Kent College’s very own performers from the highly acclaimed Miskin Theatre. Over the weekend Miskin dance students put on a very high-spirited performance with numbers from their end of year summer show “Through the Ages”. Also representing the College the band Purple Coffee comprised of 6 Miskin Music students.

Ediz Tary, Purple Coffee, said “ This is always a fantastic event and we are proud to represent the College and showcase our talents. It is a great way to engage with the local community and we have really enjoyed performing at such a well attended event on the Community stage. ”

It was also a great opportunity to raise awareness on the wide variety of courses available at the College, as many visitors were potential students. The Hair and Beauty departments came along to offer free festival make-up and hair styling. This was very well received by the visitors and showcased the students talents exceptionally well. Many visitors were keen to take details on the wealth of courses on offer for a September 2017 start.

Students involved at the festival will also be able to add this to their employability skillsets , as well as being able to add participation to their CVs and UCAS statements. It was wonderful to see staff, students, the local community and Dartford Council all come together in one place for this well organised event.

North Kent College were extremely proud to sponsor the event and to have worked closely with Dartford Borough Council in the organisation of this fun-filled event and look forward to participating again next year. Rhiannon Hughes, Deputy Principal Curriculum, commented "I was delighted to attend the Festival at the weekend, where our exceptionally talented dancers and musicians were able to draw in the crowds as they performed. It's no wonder that a good number of Dartford school leavers have now applied on the back of what they saw and heard, because they want to be a part of such success".

Submitted by Sarah West