Sparkle Sheffield are raising awareness of autism, and the dangers of sparklers for children with autism around Bonfire night. They are encouraging people to wear something sparkly instead, or take part in a dance, over the bonfire period. Sparkle are asking people around the world to post their photos on social media. Founder of Sparkle, Liesje Dusauzaytold Sheffield Live why she decided to set up the campaign.
Two multi-million pound buildings have opened at Sheffield College this term, which aim to boost young people’s employment prospectives in areas such as engineering and the creative industries. The new building, now fully open to students, includes a theatre, recording studios and a new television studio. Principal of The Sheffield College, Heather Smith told Sheffield Live how she felt to have the buildings open.
This week at Meadowhall the top 12 toys for Christmas 2015 were revealed, with Star Wars, Thunderbirds and Frozen all making the list.The Toy Retailers Association said 2015 would be what they call a “vintage year” for toys as it released its annual ‘Dream Toys’ list of what it predicts the top-sellers to be. Star Wars products related to the new film The Force Awakens, which opens next month, take the top three spots. Sheffield Live spoke to Steven Town from the association about how they decide the list…
It’s over 24 years since Ben Needham went missing on the Greek Island of Kos. On the twenty fourth of July 1991, Ben was playing at his grandparents farmhouse before he disappeared. Tomorrow, Ben would have turned twenty six years old. Back in January the Home Office granted funding for the most in depth investigation so far. Ben’s mother, Kerry Needham was part of a TV appeal in Greece to find new leads and appeal for information. As Greek authorities continue to search for Ben, South Yorkshire Police say they’re ahead of schedule in the investigation.
A new star was unveiled earlier today on the walk of fame outside the Town Hall. A world champion mountain biker Steve Peat joined the likes of Jessica Ennis, Sean Bean and many others on the city’s ‘Hollywood Boulevard-style’ attraction. I went along to interview the Sheffield athlete and the Mayor of Sheffield. Here’s what they had to say.
The Sheffield Blitz Memorial Trail has received eighty one thousand three hundred pounds from the Heritage Lottery Fund. Sheffield author, Neil Anderson, began working on the plans to commemorate the Sheffield Blitz with the publication of his book, ‘Sheffield’s Date with Hitler’ in 2010. Now, the 75th anniversary in December is set to be marked with an exhibition and trail around sixteen sites across the city. The Sheffield Blitz in December 1940 made almost a tenth of the city’s population homeless. Sheffield Live’s Kathryn Smiles went along to speak to Neil Anderson about the trail and the funding.
Around one hundred people are preparing to abseil down Sheffield Hallam Universities’ Owen Building this Halloween, to help raise money for the British Red Cross. The organisers are hoping to raise around eighteen thousand pounds, to support the charity more locally here in Sheffield.
Around six hundred musicians across thirty events have been performing in Sheffield this weekend for the Classical Sheffield Festival of Music. It’s the first year of the festival which has been organised by Music in the Round, Sheffield Philharmonic Chorus, Sheffield Symphony Orchestra and the University of Sheffield. It aims to promote professional and amateur classical music events to get more people involved in this genre of music.
It all started with a perfect opening: Turncoat gave everyone an immediate rush of energy that possessed every person in the room for the entire show.
Anti-Flag have now (for twenty years or more) laboured to build and be part of a conscious community whose eyes are open to the world around them. Fully fuelled by activist political opinion, the group send a positive message to all to be respectful and live life to its full potential. The set list included Die For Your Government and War Sucks, Let’s Party to name a few of their more obvious political songs.
The gig was enthralling, people became united and threw their fists in the air and belted the band’s lyrics right back at them with passion. The crowd was encouraged to make some noise, jump and dance with all they had. This is one of the first gigs I’ve been to where the audience interaction was so consistent, short speeches and opinions on world affairs left people clapping and cheering in agreement.
The icing on the cake for me personally, was the moment Chris #2 (bass guitar, vocals) joined us in the crowd to finish up, it truly broke down the walls between performer and audience and was spectacular to see. Anti-Flag were bringing out positive activist records when I was less than ten years old and they have not lost a single spark of devotion for what they believe in.
The new album American Spring contains higher elements of pop in contrast to some of their earlier music, this is not to say however, that the band have lost of their initial hard hitting edginess. Whether the punk scene is your thing or not, it is difficult to argue with positive messages against racism and hate. It is a close knit community that goes deeper than just the music, and I was delighted to be part of it for an evening.
SLTV first hit your screens on 23 September 2015 so we celebrated with a special edition of Talking Sheffield hosted by Simon Thake in front of a live audience. The guests were Steve Buckley, Chair of SLTV, Sara Hill from Opus Magazine and Lia Nici from Estuary TV.