Over 250 young people, aged 6 – 18 years, from across the region came together for the first North East StreetGames Street Cheer and Dance event at Burnside Business & Enterprise College in North Tyneside. The event was organised by StreetGames in partnership with North Tyneside Council’s Widening Horizons for Sport programme, Street Cheer and NE Music Factory.

The event kicked off with a mass participation session for Street Cheer a relatively new and very popular discipline of Cheerleading. Over 250 young people of all ages were put through their paces and taught an exciting new routine which they can go away and expand on in the weekly sessions they attend.

This was followed by an introductory session to Urban Flow, a brand new type of street dance which has been written and accredited by NE Music Factory. NE Music Factory are a Community Interest Company based in Blyth who work in close partnership with StreetGames to deliver all types of dance to a large number of community groups across the region.

The afternoon saw the start of the Street Cheer Competition, with the Peeps category groups taking to the floor. The Peeps category represent the under 12 age group and the eleven teams each displayed excellent routines. The category was won by the Little Dudes from the Jenny Gallagher Performance Academy, which was an extra special victory in ac activity that is dominated by girls, as the whole team is made up of boys. The runners up, also from the Jenny Gallagher Performance Academy, were the Dangerous crew, but each and every team who took part deserved to be recognised for their commitment and enthusiasm.

It was then the turn of the older groups to showcase their talent on the dance floor and it proved to be a heavily fought contest. The judges struggled to pick just one winner and therefore awarded the winners trophies to two crews; Misdemeanour and Notorious, both of whom came from NE Music Factory sessions.

The most sought after and popular award of the event though is the Spirit Award. Each and every team taking part on the day are eligible to win this title, which is awarded to the team who show the most enthusiasm, team spirit and fair play on the day. The proud winners on the day were the Paglets, a group from Pallion Action Group in Sunderland, all of whom are aged 6 – 10 years.

The festival was organised by StreetGames, a charity dedicated to developing sporting opportunities for young people living in disadvantaged communities.

Gemma Hollywood, StreetGames Co-ordinator in the North East, who organised the event in partnership with North Tyneside Council’s Sports Development team and Street Cheer, said “We were delighted to have organised this event along with the support from the Widening Horizons for Sport programme. This is the first Street Cheer specific competition that we have ran in the North East and it has proved to be extremely popular. The event gave young people the opportunity to showcase what they have been practicing over the last year at weekly StreetGames sessions. It was also a great opportunity to introduce people to the activity who may have only just started taking part or are thinking of becoming involved.”

Su Cumming, the regional representative for StreetGames, is very keen to see the event build in popularity in the future;

Su said, “This was a fantastic opportunity for all our young people to show their talents in a fun and friendly environment. The event was a fantastic finale to this year’s StreetGames programme and demonstrates how StreetGames continues to grow across the region providing sporting activities to many young people who would not usually have access to these kind of opportunities.”