The Theatre Royal and Royal Concert Hall Nottingham (TRCH) has been awarded one of the five Best Family Event awards for the 2014 Family Arts Festival, with its Family Music Day.

Voted for entirely by the public who attended the annual Family Arts Festival, a national festival offering families an extraordinary range of arts activities to enjoy, the awards recognise the outstanding events that took place within the festival and the organisations that participated.

The TRCH Nottingham joined over 900 other organisations in delivering events as part of the 2014 festival, which took place between 17 October and 2 November 2014. More than 500,000 family members attended one of the 4,500 festival events across the UK.

The Family Music Day was held at the Royal Concert Hall Nottingham on Sunday 2 November. Hundreds of families enjoyed a fun-packed afternoon of making music together: They made their own instruments and played them in a feisty Latin percussion workshop, joined in sing-alongs with the Beanbag Music Club and with the People’s Choir. The grand finale to the afternoon was a performance by the Family Orchestra, with mums and dads, brothers and sisters, and nephews and nieces raising the roof of the Royal Concert Hall’s main stage.

The Family Arts Festival celebrated at an awards ceremony on 12 March at Rich Mix in London, recognising the Festival’s most engaging family events as well as highlighting the outstanding organisers amongst the theatres, orchestras, museums, galleries, libraries and community groups that participated last autumn.

David Longford, the Creative Learning Manager at TRCH Nottingham proudly accepted the award at the Family Arts Festival Awards Ceremony, accompanied by Verona Chard, Annabel Pidduck and Angela Warren who had all participated in the organisation of the Family Music Day event.

On accepting the award David Longford said, “On behalf of all the staff, artists and volunteers I am delighted that the Theatre Royal and the Royal Concert Hall has won, for the second year running, this prestigious national award recognising our work and commitment to families. The fact that it was the public who voted for us makes it very special indeed and confirms our overall belief of the importance of family audiences to our venue.”

Kathryn McDowell; Chair of the Family Arts Campaign, which runs the Family Arts Festival, said: “We’re really pleased to have had so many fantastic organisations delivering high quality events as part of the Family Arts Festival, which has been embraced by both organisers and families across the country.”

Planning is already underway for the next Family Arts Festival, which will take place 9 October – 1 November 2015. With extended dates, this year’s festival aims to involve even more families in exceptional programmes of events later this year. Visit the Family Arts Festival website to find out more: familyartsfestival.com