Hello, I’m Ellen-Louise Moore. I have been in the Barracudas for four years now and I love it! There is nowhere else like this in Barrow. I’ve shared many different experiences with the other lovely people who are also in the Barracudas. I first joined a few years back because one of my friends had. So glad that she told me all about it and I thought I’d try it out. So happy that I did because I met so many lovely people here and now some of them are like my best friends. I have been to many places that I’d never of dreamed of going! We have been all over Britain, from our hometown Barrow to Glasgow up in Scotland.
When I first joined Barracudas I started trying out stilt walking but in the end I found that stilts just were not for me, so I became a dancer instead. My first carnival was a Christmas one, and it was in my words ‘Beautiful’ because we were all lit up with our fancy lights attached to our costumes. The Barracudas Band sounded great! Our stilt walkers always behind us as they are the taller ones! They are always easily spotted.
The Carnivals are great! Early mornings, long coach journeys there and back but it is all worth the experience. Doing the carnivals is great, we do them in all weathers and places! We’ve been through thick snow, heavy rain, blazing hot sun and still survived. I look forward to Thursdays every week knowing I’m coming to Barracudas that night, I also love it when Carnival season is around so we get to start the carnivals. We’re invited to come to many different places over Britain to be part of their carnival and many other carnival arts groups from all over the world are also invited, we meet so many people at these carnivals and they always give us ideas for our next costume theme. This year we have a theme of a circus! Our main colours this year are yellow, red, purple, black and white, so you can’t miss us really.
Recently I did my school work experience here at Barracudas and it had been really great, very tiring too but this is what we have got to do to look great in the carnivals.
I’ve done many things, I’ve been sewing, designing, cleaning, cutting, drawing, unpicking, I’ve also learnt many new techniques on how to make costumes and other materials that are needed at Barracudas. I also made myself my own pair of leggings for me to wear, by using the techniques that I have learnt and will be very useful in the future.
