contact

Where?

Barracudas The Nan Tait Centre Bath Street Barrow-in-Furness Cumbria LA14 5TY

01229 812036

carnival@barracudas.org.uk

We are a carnival band with performers of all ages, featuring musicians, drummers, dancers and stilt walkers all in fabulous costumes. Based in Barrow-in-Furness at the Nan Tait Centre, we provide workshops for beginners and more advanced performers as well as creative workshops for teenagers. We are all about having fun, dressing up and celebrating whilst learning new skills at the same time. It is easy to get to us by train, as we are only 5 minutes away from the train station or by bus from Ulverston or Kendal, if you get off at the bus stop in Abbey Road.

Artistic Director is Julie Hammerton who has been with Barracudas since its beginnings in 1988. She has studied carnival around the world, Caribbean, European and Brazilian. She is an Arts Council Fellow, having been hosted by Rio de Janeiro’s oldest samba school, Estacio de Sa. Our Music Director is Dougie Gillam who has been with Barracudas for 17 years! He brings together musicians to create our street tunes, as well as leading our music workshops. Our saxophone tutor is Justine Blackburn. We always welcome new participants, so do not hesitate to contact us if you want more information about our activities or facilities. Call us or send an email.

Our facilities include: 

Our rehearsal room; a large mezzanine space with kitchen facilities that can also be used as a meeting room, and we let it to different organisation for a wide range of purposes. There are excellent acoustics in this room because of the high spec acoustic tiling on the ceiling.

We have a sewing room and a fabrication workshop, where we create our carnival backpacks and headdresses.