BROMSGROVE residents are being encouraged to get creative to celebrate The Queen’s Baton Relay.

With the countdown to the Baton Relay arriving in Bromsgrove on July 23 well underway, the council is working in partnership with Bromsgrove Festival to encourage communities to create artwork, on the theme of celebration, community, and the Commonwealth games.

Participants can choose which sort of artform they’d like to create such as paintings, poetry or music.

There will be a focus on encouraging residents to paint rocks which will be displayed in the peace garden at Sanders Park, leading up to and on the day of the event.

Residents who want to take part are being encouraged to display their artwork in and outside their homes and in the community across the whole district.

Residents attending the Queen’s Baton Relay event are also being asked to dress in their chosen colours of the Commonwealth and to bring homemade or shop-bought flags along, to create ‘the colours of the Commonwealth’.

The Queen’s Baton Relay event will be taking place at Sanders Park, around the Bandstand, on the morning of July 23, from 9 am.

The relay will take approximately 25 minutes and a celebratory event will be held in the park from 9 am to 11 am, as part of this.

The event will showcase local sports, music, and creative clubs and celebrate the 20-year anniversary of the Jubilee Bandstand in the park.

Portfolio holder for leisure and cultural services, Cllr Michael Thompson, said: “The Queen’s Baton Relay is a once-in-a-lifetime experience.

"It not only celebrates the sporting element of the games themselves but also the communities, people, cultures, and places in the Commonwealth, so it is fantastic that we are reflecting this and encouraging people to celebrate through art and community projects, as well as sport.”