“When culture comes to care!”
Residents of 4 Barchester Care Homes in Edinburgh were first to take part in the “Fringe Cares Festival” – a new project aimed at maintaining community links and enriching residents within the Edinburgh area.
For many senior adults who live in care homes it is often impossible to attend the world’s largest arts festival, the Edinburgh Festival Fringe. Therefore, this year, Edinburgh Festival Fringe performers brought music from the 76 year old arts festival to four care homes in the city of Edinburgh – Queens Manor Care Home, Archview Lodge Care Home, Drummond Grange Care Home and Strachan House Care Home.
The initial idea was thought, planned and scheduled in 2022, with the final concept and performance being launched at the founding home – Queens Manor. From the amazing feedback received by residents, staff, relatives and visitors it was then decided to open up the event to the other three homes in 2023 and what a success it has been!
According to one of the organisers Professor Joe Goldblatt, “Last year my wife and I sponsored one performer and I was amazed when residents who had not spoken for months suddenly burst forth into song, in French, when a Fringe performer began to sing the Edith Piaf popular song La vie en rose.
“As they sang along I was speechless and in awe of the power of musical memories to inspire their strong positive emotions and awaken their senses.”
The Fringe Cares Festival is coordinated by the Edinburgh Interfaith Association and its founding sponsor is Barchester Healthcare who are the owner – operator of the four care homes in Edinburgh. All of the performers are appeared at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe and have previously performed all over the world.
Donna Wood, General Manager of Queens Manor Care Home said “I am delighted that Barchester is the founding sponsor for this special programme.
“We know how delighted our residents are to enjoy the performance of professional performers. If it were not for this unique programme, they would miss out on seeing this great talent. Through the Fringe Cares Fest we are able to bring the excitement, fun, and delights of the Festival Fringe right into our homes.”
The goal for the festival and its sponsors, is for the event to be available across all care homes in Edinburgh within the next ten years – no matter what care provider the home is operated by.
The executive director of the Edinburgh Interfaith Association added: “EIFA is very proud to have conceived this programme as part of our commitment to bringing people together to celebrate, communicate, and appreciate one another through music.
“The 35 year old EIFA is the oldest interfaith association and represents all faiths and none promoting respect, understanding, peace and love. The Fringe Cares Fest at Barchester dramatically demonstrates that we may all come together and benefit through music.”
The homes were hugely appreciative to the two different performers that provided the entertainment across the 4 different programmes of events – Canadian storyteller and banjo player Keith Alessi stars in his critically acclaimed solo banjo performance entitled Tomatoes Tried to Kill Me but Banjos Saved My Life and the highly popular acapella quartet Octavoce performed their musical jubilee entitled 100 Years of Disney Plus!
The organisers of this event are looking forward to speaking to care providers over the coming months to gauge participation and plan the programmes for 2024! If you would like more information on this, please do contact Queens Manor Care Home.
The 4 care homes that took part in this project are run by Barchester Healthcare, one of the UK’s largest care providers, which is committed to delivering personalised care across its care homes and hospitals. They provide residential care, nursing care and dementia care for residents, from respite care to long term stays.