Bloco Dandara - Help us grow

Our Story so far

Bloco Dandara was a dream of our Artistic Director, Jordan, for a long time and since 2019 has tried to get it off the ground. Thankfully in 2024 we got a great team together, built some partnerships and put on our first community workshops! Hosting 40 people across our August and September open days where we built the general concept of the bloco in just 2.5 hours. Teaching Brazilian rhythms on authentic instruments, and fusing those irresistible rhythms with songs that people here in Glasgow would know (as well as covers of classic Brazilian songs).  

Our Bloco workshops are open to anyone irregardless of their life experience or skill level. Our participants come along, meet new people and come away saying things like:

"I felt great and reinvigorated!"
" I felt like I was back in Brazil"
"Couldn't help but feel joy."

There is a magic about all carnival arts. It's a process that can bring people from all walks of life together to work towards something bigger than themselves, meet new people they otherwise would never of met, and in many instances change the entire direction of their lives. It's our mission to create this open and inclusive community to create something unique together.

Why we're crowdfunding

Following on from the enthusiasm and success we've had this year so far. We're gearing up for 2025 to be a big year of our bloco really finding our feet and working towards our big ambitions.

Our vision is to grow Bloco Dandara into a sustainable community in the long-term, but the arts funding landscape in Scotland has become increasingly competitive.

That’s where you come in. The confidence our community has given us fuels our vision, and now we’re asking for your support to help Bloco Dandara take its next steps. We currently hold monthly rehearsals, but with your help, we can reach more people, grow our workshops, and offer even more to our community.

How your support will help us

We are aiming to raise a total of £3000 across our two fundraising gigs (more info below) and this campaign. Meeting this goal will allow us to do a few things that will really help us grow.

For 6 months we'd be able to

• Cover our monthly workshop venue costs
• Have on-site storage at our home in East Glasgow where we rehearse. Easing the logistical burden of running our sessions 
• Whilst having some extra money to help cover our team's expenses, replace any broken instruments, market the project to reach a wider audience etc

In addition, we'll be able to create a development pot. This is set aside for our community and artists to use to develop skills, engage more people, work with guest artists and whatever else we might feel would be of benefit. As well as have some money to pay our artists who so far have been giving their time to this project for free.

Gigs

We're putting on two gigs to raise money to meet this objective and to give our community something to work towards.

Friday the 28th of February- The Wee Red Bar, Edinburgh with a smaller line up. (full details here)

Saturday the 1st of March - The Dream Machine, Glasgow (byob*) with our full bloco!
(full details here)

What will this achieve?

With six months of funding, we’ll be able to focus more on building a lasting community rather than worrying about short-term workshop signups. By the end of this period, we aim to have established a strong base, secured gigs and made a start on a sustainable future for Bloco Dandara.