What began as a dream for two music-obsessed teenagers has grown into an international Carnival hub in the foothills of the Pennines.
Just four years after opening its doors, the Northern Carnival Centre of Excellence in Mossley has established itself as a vibrant home for music, dance and creativity. This June and July the Centre is gearing up to welcome the arrival of two Brazilian Carnival legends, Guga Santos and Mestre Nilo.
And it’s thanks to the vision, dedication and global outlook of two local musicians and childhood friends, Leon Patel and Holly Prest.
Today, their once-audacious idea to turn a former mill town, with a population of just 11,500, into a world-class nerve centre for Carnival arts is a thriving reality. Mossley is now home to one of only two such centres in the country, the other being the UK Centre for Carnival Arts in Luton.
Based at The Vale arts centre, the Northern Carnival Centre of Excellence not only provides space for international artists to meet and collaborate, but also creates opportunities for local people of all ages to experience the process of creating Carnival.
Born and raised in Mossley and Greenfield respectively, Leon and Holly co-founded the Centre alongside Brazilian percussionist Eraldo Marques, through their arts organisation Global Grooves.
While Holly and Leon, now both in their 40s, met as children at a samba drumming class at Mossley Community Centre in the 1990s, the pair befriended Eraldo during a series of life-changing exchange visits between the UK and Brazilian Carnival capital Sao Paulo.
Since 2021, it has become a magnet for musicians, dancers, visual artists and makers, as well as the many people who want to learn these skills. It regularly hosts masterclasses, artists’ residencies, weekly dance and music sessions as well as an annual training programme for creative 12-25s called Future Leaders.
International artists who have previously performed or taught classes include Brazilian samba reggae percussionist Vinícius Silva, Malawian one-man band Gasper Nali, Gambian master musicians Sefo Kanuteh and Suntou Susso and Korean-American puppet artist Andrew Kim.
Upcoming sessions include a day-long workshop of dance, music and storytelling with Congolese dance artist Ruth Asidi and Brazilian percussionist Guga Santos (22 June), and a rare samba masterclass from Mestre Nilo, who is being flown in from Rio’s iconic Portela Samba School (15 July). Both events are being run on a ‘pay what you feel’ basis to make them as accessible as possible.
For Leon and Holly and their team however, it isn’t about importing culture. Having grown up in the area, they are well aware of the importance of preserving and promoting local cultural heritage.
When the pair learned that local brass bands often struggled to recruit new, young blood, they put their heads together and came up with a creative solution. The Incredible Plastic Street Band, for children aged 4-12, offered an exciting new approach to brass and went from strength to strength, regularly playing at events including Stalybridge Carnival and Whit Friday.
Another example of the Centre’s championing of Tameside and Oldham will see the team fly a local Morris dancing troupe to a major European outdoor arts festival later this year. With details still under wraps, the group will collaborate with classical Indian dancers from Oldham, to together represent Greater Manchester on the world stage.
Leon said: “A building connected through its cotton spinning and weaving past to the global slave trade now reverberates with samba-reggae from Brazil, Congolese-Cuban fusion sounds, Gambian kora playing, and of course Lancashire brass.
“And that it is in Mossley, not the centre of Manchester, makes it all the more special. Not least because it is my home town, but also because it shows that important cultural centres don’t just exist in big cities, and that creativity also thrives in lesser known places.”
Holly said: “The spirit of Carnival is the spirit of community, and in every culture, people get together – in good times and bad – to sing, dance, make music, dress up, and share food.
“This has always been about building something lasting: a place where local people can access the world, and where the world can find its way here.
“We don’t take our role as Carnival guardians, promoters, facilitators and innovators lightly. It is a vocation and a life’s work – one that began as a dream in Mossley Community Centre, and took us all over the world and back home again.”
Tambor Vital – with Ruth Asidi and Guga Santos, an all day workshop of dance, music and storytelling is on Sunday 22 June 2025 10-5pm. A samba masterclass with Mestre Nilo is on Tuesday 15 July 2025 7-10pm. Both are at the Northern Carnival Centre of Excellence, The Vale, off Micklehurst Road, Mossley, Tameside OL5 9JL T: 01457 238 089
