The Big Fandango

21/10/2026

Bury Involvement Group in Mental Health have a number of groups supporting your mental wellbeing including their hearing voices grouo and neuro-divergent group.

They also offer a crisis service. Check their website for full details.

20/10/2026

Thank you to everyone who came along to our 2nd su***de prevention conference last week. Georgia from The Creative Living Centre has been going through the evaluation forms and the important thing for all of us who worked behind the scenes for nearly a year to put this together was EVERY one who filled in the feedback would be taking something back to their workplace to make a difference.

If you are interested in getting you workforce trained to be able to have a conversation that could support someone in crisis please get in touch .

Thanks to everyone who came along and supported us to our sponsors at GLP GLP Solicitors, to The Creative Living Centre and Bury Involvement Group in Mental Health for all their hard work. Together we are stronger!!!!

20/10/2026

We have lots of cosy sewing sessions before the end of October so head to our website to see what's going on.

We are at the Bury Autism Co-production Network Connect Event next Monday afternoon but our usual neuro divergent sewing session will be back to normal on the 2nd November.

We have Neurodivergent sewing sessions for 18-25 year olds every Thursday 4:30 - 6:30 pm

Our Peer support sessions for families of neurodivergent children and young people are on the 1st Saturday of the month - next session 7th Nov.

Quilting for all is every Thursday morning
Sewing for All Every Thursday afternoon.

Our Wednesday night Sew Social is 6-9pm for experienced sewists!

Peer support for families bereaved by su***de 7th Nov - 1:30 - 3pm

and our group for children bereaved by su***de is open for referals so drop us a DM

Lots going on so do get in touch!!

Workshops by The Big Fandango Sewing Classes near me

17/10/2026

So whilst all the conference activities have been going its still been business as usual at Fandango HQ.....
Experiments with Hawaiian quilt blocks which are soooo cool as you cut them out like paper snowflakes, some traditional Welsh hand quilting, a STUNNING quilt in amazing rainbow colours from our 18-25 group, a first EVER quilt from our 13 + group, Olly has nearly finished a quilt for her granddaughter and Ailsa is working on an absolutely amazing sampler quilt which we'll share some pics of next week.

If you fancy giving it a go come and join us every Thursday morning.
All our workshops are on our website
Www.thebigfandango.com

16/10/2026

We’re in this together 💙

GLP Solicitors was proud to support the Bury Su***de Prevention Conference 2026, organised by The Big Fandango.

This year’s conference focused on su***de prevention among children and young people, bringing people together to share knowledge, experiences and ideas around school support, online safety, neurodiversity and bereavement.

Creating safer communities takes all of us. By raising awareness, encouraging open conversations and working together, we can help make a difference.

Read more about the conference, its key themes and where to find support: Link in the comments.

***dePrevention

16/10/2026

A big thank you to the amazing staff at Holy Cross College, Bury and Rae Aimee Connett in Bury for inviting me to deliver su***de prevention training to their pastoral teams today.

100% of the team feel better equipped and more confident in speaking to students, having the right words to use and it reinforced that they are doing the right things.

In Bury we are working to build stronger safety nets to reduce su***de and that involves all sectors working together to create safe spaces, share learning and best practice. We are so lucky to have a great relationship with Holy Cross and can ensure that support is there for staff and students alike.

Our training is evidence based and our training is rooted and designed to signpost to services that are relevant to our community like Bury Involvement Group in Mental Health , The Creative Living Centre and Bury Council services. Su***de Prevention is all our business Together we are stronger!!🙌

If you are interested in workplace training get in touch at [email protected]

14/10/2026

If you were to ask me what The Big Fandango is for....its days like these. Be in no doubt organising conferences is not for the faint of hear but thanks to our colleagues at Bury Involvement Group in Mental Health , The Creative Living Centre and Bury Samaritans we hosted an incredible day of learning.
Thanks to our sponsors GLP Solicitors , Piblu Technologies and Bury Rotary.

Our 2nd annual su***de prevention conference was centred around support for our children and young people and we had amazing speakers from roght across the UK who were experts in their field including Dr Nina Jo Smith, Mike Palmer from 3 dad's walking, Barnardos, Pat Sowa, Caroline Roodhouse, Russ Magnall and Kate Edwards from The Molly Rose Foundation. It was topped off by some incredible theatre from our own League of Curiosities.

A packed house combining lived experience, best practice and a genuine desire to stop our children feeling su***de is an option. Thank you to everyone who came, who supported the event as stall holders, to Roma in Whitefield for amazing food and my incredible team especially Ailsa Hunt who lets be honest endures me on a regular basis😘

We do what we do because it comes from a place of love, the brightest star, my girl whose light I will always keep shining!!

10/10/2026

Today is World Mental Health Day. Of course every day we should be prioritising good mental health and su***de prevention, they sit at the heart of any strong community.

This last month we held our annual vigil for those bereaved by su***de. We held 4 su***de prevention training sessions, one for volunteers and 3 for the hospitality industry across Bury. We attended the PABBS su***de bereavement conference in Blackpool and the Empowerment conference in Blackpool.

On Wednesday we are proud to be hosting our 2nd Su***de Prevention Conference in Bury. Tickets available by following the link.

Of course none of this is possible without the compassion and collaboration from our friends at Bury Involvement Group in Mental Health , The Creative Living Centre , Samaritans in Bury, Bury Fire Choir , Sky Bar and our amazing team of volunteers

Working together we are always stronger!

Book your tickets for an amazing conference around mental wellbeing for our children and young people: https://www.thebigfandango.com/conferences

07/10/2026

A day of beautiful embroidery at our goldwork Masterclass on Tuesday 3rd November

We are so lucky to get the amazing author and embroidery expert Alison Larkin back for a day of stitching!

Goldwork started in Asia 2000 years ago and became popular in this country during the Middle Ages, it is a fascination technique using precious metals and pearls to create beautiful designs.

Alison will take you through all the steps, talk through starter kits etc and you will make a fabulous dragonfly. All abilities are welcome and a full buffet lunch is provided as well as all your supplies
£80 for the full day workshop. Book via the link

Alison Larkin is a teacher, lecturer and author specialising in historical embroidery.   In this workshop you will learn the basics of Goldwork...

07/10/2026

Next Wednesday is our Su***de Prevention Conference at The Met Theatre and we still have some spaces left. The theme children and young people.

12 year ago I could not imagine to be working in this field, I wouldn't have thought i would be bereaved by su***de and sadly none of us do until it's too late.

Next week we are bringing some amazing, insping speakers to Bury from right across the UK. If you work with children and young people I would urge you to come along, you can get your tickets by following the link.

https://www.thebigfandango.com/conferences

If you are a charity or CIC in the Bury area, I still have a limited no. Of subsidised seats left so do send me a DM.

Hope to see you on the 14th