Cheshire Scouts+ August 2018 Edition 3

That’s what you call entertainment

To entertain the bigger number of participants Chamboree 2018 had a larger arena, a bigger stage, a specially designed set and a team of enthusiastic performers supported by even more enthusiastic back stage crew.

Stage

Keeping with the theme of Chamboree, Totie Driver, west end stage designer was drafted in and devised a full working pirate ship on stage that could be moved and fixed in various positions to create a different stage look and feel for each of our performances, the galleon was created by Phil Turnbull and his team and took approx 3 months to create. We saw the ship change positions most nights and it was decorated in various colours to represent the two characters ships from Story of Chambo, Captain Jack Chambo’s ship and Captain Corrupts ship, We also saw the galleon become a DJ booth in the back of the ship (stern) this really gave the participants a feeling of being at a live DJ set much like the nightclubs of Ibiza.

Chambo Returned!

Following the success of the Chambo character at the last Chamboree we witnessed its return as a pirate with a three-part show on stage entitled “the story of Chambo – the legend of the ninth piece of eight” devised and written by Nick Hirst. The team of young people on stage performed this three-part saga where we saw the evil villain Captain Corrupt (Collette McManus) try to steal the pieces of eight in order to take over the seven seas, but fear not. Captain Jack Chambo (Will Taylor) and his band of merry pirate buccaneers (members of Chester Gang Show cast) defeat Captain corrupt after being trapped in the underworld in our midweek performance by the creepy showman (Alex Dodd).

Chamboree X

Chamboree X is a performance team and was bigger than ever this year, managed by our head of performance Cat Hirst. It brought together a team of 14 Network members to be Chamboree’s dedicated entertainments team for the entire week, supported by 5 Jnr X members. Chamboree X were involved in every single performance on stage including daytime activities such as hula, zumba, yoga, boot camp, camp dance, game shows, CGT (Chamboree’s Got Talent) talent tent and site promotions which saw the team in full costume interacting with participants on activity bases throughout the week.

Something for everyone

Saturday saw our Opening ceremony with one highlight being the International flag parade inviting representatives from 25 different countries onto the stage to welcome the opening of Chamboree 2018. There was a pyrotechnic display, Chamboree X interacting with a fantastic performance and a finale to the evening of a DJ set by guest DJ Banno.

Sunday saw our Peace ceremony run by Linda Buckley, Sarah Fisher and Jnr Chamboree X followed by the arrival of Chief Scout, Bear Grylls onto stage who was met by whoops and cheers from a very soggy 6,000 participants, Bear was then able to interact with the crowd as he made his way through the arena to the 5 different activity bases that have been brought into the arena for our competition winners to met Bear one on one.

Sunday night was Rock Night, Seeing performances from Chambroee X including Bat out of hell, Don’t stop believing and many singalong tracks on the large TV screens for everyone to get involved with. Chamboree X performed a fantastic abridged version of the west end hit, We will Rock you, All topped off with another DJ set to keep the party going till lights out.

Monday saw Chamboree’s Band night, with two local bands, CTRL+C is a local 5 piece band from Manchester performing their renditions of popular covers, Then we welcomed Boomin to the stage who performed an electrifying 90 min set to bring band night to a close, Boomin specialise in mixing tracks together and really getting the crowd going.

Wednesday afternoon was Carnival day with two fantastic acts to the arena, a pirate stunt show team who performed acrobatics and break dance moves and some great audience participation moments, we also welcomed back Jez Avery, Chamboree’s best friend, who performed some draw dropping stunts with his variety of motor powered and man-powered vehicles.

Carnival night was then kicked off by a parade around the site led by site services and the newly created Galleon the “Poop Decker” bringing all our participants into the arena. Electrifying performances by Chamboree X and a bouncing DJ set saw the midweek event brought to an exciting climax.

Thursday evening was Chamboree Got’s Talent Final where 10 different acts from multiple different countries battled it our in front of our judges for a place in the closing ceremony – Thomas Wright from 6th Macclesfield won with a fantastic dance performance from the greatest showman, we then started the party with our UV disco

Friday saw the emotional end to Chamboree 2018, with a parade into the arena with Captain Jack Chambo riding around the site picking up the subcamps in true pirate fashion. We kicked off the evening with catch up videos from the week including a dedicated thank you to the staff of Chamboree 2018, Boombox then took to the stage to wow the crowd with their performance and stage presence, finally we welcomed back Chamboree X and supporting team to see the night out in style with one of the most hyped DJ sets by Marky Mark (AKA our Head of Entertainments Mark Turnbull) and his Funky Bunch.

Then in a blink of an eye, it was all over.

It is fair to say that without the help and inspiration of Chester Gang Show much of the above would have been impossible to deliver, so thank you one and all.