Viva Carnival Club

VIVA is an integrated carnival club bringing together disabled and non disabled adults to make quality carnival together. The club formed in late 2012 as a legacy of the very successful Blue Touch Paper Carnival project with West Sussex Arts Partnership. Facilitated by the NCC, the VIVA club has recently formed its own committee to strengthen its identity and fund raising capacity, with each officer post being shared between a club member and a ‘buddy’ with experience in that role.

VIVA’s presentation style is definitely all things Rio – with its own Mestre Sala and Porta Bandeira, dancers and costumes. It regularly performs alongside the Island’s RAW Samba band. The club is closely linked with Rio’s leading disability samba school  Embaixadores da Alegria and members enjoyed regular contact with its artists Paul Davies and Luiz Fernandez  during the run up to London 2012.

The club is a key partner in the 2017 emerging ALEGRIA UK project, a new NCC and Embaixadores collaboration to promote disabled carnival practice and leadership across the UK carnival sector. The Alegria project, currently in its Research and Development stage, is being supported through Unlimited, weareunlimited.org.uk . Unlimited is funded by Arts Council England, Arts Council of Wales, British Council and Spirit of 2012.

VIVA runs two weekly clubs for members, a carnival crafts group on Monday evenings at the George Street Centre, Ryde, and a samba drum group on Tuesday evenings at the Learning Centre, Westridge, Ryde.  New members always welcome.