Sparky - Medway
In 2009 the Medway Champion took its first steps into the world as part of the FUSE Medway Festival, waking up from its custom built pod on Chatham High Street.
Since then the Champion has gone on to become the face of Medway's new Cultural Strategy visiting a multitude of schools, community groups, festivals and events including the Medway Mile, The Summer Dickens Festival and numerous appearances throughout FUSE. Much of the puppet action was captured on camera by a team of film makers who filmed the events to give a champion's eye view of Medway. The Champion has been cared for and nurtured by local artists Wendy Daws, Ciaran Mckay and a team of students from the University of Kent at Medway.
In 2010, Sparky went to Fuse Festival and met his big brother Atom for the first time! They met at Chatham Riverside on 12 June and spent a great time together. Sparky had an amazing time at Fues Festival which he created a Performance Relay with Medway primary and junior schools. They started off with a TV show, where soon after Sparky showed off his cha cha slide moves and began his wonderful array of activities: he went in the Greased Lightning car, heard 'Song for Sparky', played basket ball, leap frog, tried skipping and clapping games, learned some Tai Chi moves, listened to a poem all about him and finished off with some Spanish dancing. After all this he headed over to Chatham Riverside where he finally found his big brother Atom!
