THERE are plenty of bad cars on the road, but only one Bard car.
The majority of them might not be able to legally drive yet, but the young people of Stratford have put their heads together to come up with the perfect car to honour Shakespeare as part of the town’s celebrations to mark his 450th birthday.
Escape Community Arts have been awarded £500 by organisers of this year’s Stratford Festival of Motoring to design the Bard car, which will lead this year’s Cavalcade during both days of the festival on (Sunday and Monday (May 4 and 5).
The youngsters, who range in age from eight to 21, take part in Escape’s Youth Volunteer Programme every Saturday and were asked to come up with ideas to design “the car Shakespeare would have driven”.
The car takes its inspiration from Shakespeare’s time and feature a half-timbered design with a modern day twist, including characters from the plays and the famous Yorick Skull.
The car is a vintage mobility scooter, with a wooden framework which has been specially made for it, to allow the group to build on the side of it.
The group took delivery of the adapted scooter two weeks ago and have been busy over the past two weekends constructing their vision of the Bard’s wheels.
The group will be riding the car over to the Men’s Shed group to ask Stratford’s older gents town to help finalise the design, using their woodworking skills to help finish the construction.
The Cavalcade will feature dozens of unique cars and will take place over the two days of the festival, starting in Bridge Street at around midday, before making its way at a steady pace through Waterside and Old Town, Church Street, Chapel and High Street.
Visit www.stratfordfestivalofmotoring.co.uk for further details about the Stratford Festival of Motoring, including the full line-up and list of road closures.
