The Arches Worcester Festivals (Severn Arts)

Touring Network Partner

Brand new festivals, delivered by Severn Arts, are taking place in Worcester, showcasing national and international creative talent and supporting local emerging work. Placing culture & creativity at the heart of the city.

The first of the festivals, LIGHT NIGHT WORCESTER, took place across the city centre on the evening of Thursday 16 January. There are more festivals to come, each with the same high-quality work and opportunities but completely different to each other. The festival’s programme is part of THE ARCHES – WORCESTER PROJECT.

Severn Arts is a principle partner in this project and is the lead organisation for the Festivals. Severn Arts is a leading arts charity providing education, participation and engagement programmes across Worcestershire. The organisation is ambitious for Worcester and Worcestershire: passionate about building and developing arts projects and opportunities to help raise the city and county’s profile as a vibrant, rich cultural destination.

The Arches Worcester project is supported by the Department of Culture Media and Sports’ Cultural Development Fund, administered by Arts Council England.

Have a closer look at The Arches Worcester Festival

WE Great Place

Touring Network Partner

Great Place Wentworth & Elsecar is a project funded by Heritage Lottery Fund (HLF) and Arts Council England (ACE), our work focuses on the rich heritage, culture and community engagement within these truly great places.

Over three years the WE Great Place team will deliver an exciting range of cultural activity, inspired by the vivid history linked to the fascinating Wentworth Woodhouse and Earl Fitzwilliam’s industrial empire at Elsecar. Our vision is to raise the aspirations of young people in the local area and help them achieve their potential using new, innovative methods of engagement.

Great Place is led by Barnsley Council, representing a close partnership with Rotherham Council and Wentworth Woodhouse Preservation Trust.great

See more information

Vision Redbridge Culture & Leisure

Touring Network Partner

Vision Redbridge Culture & Leisure (VRCL) is a charitable trust delivering and developing library, cultural, sport and leisure facilities and services on behalf of the London borough of Redbridge. The Culture Team in Vision aims to support, promote, develop and deliver the arts and cultural offer across the borough through animating public spaces, enabling and encouraging engagement in culture and supporting and promoting the voluntary arts sector.

Ken Aston Square and Ilford Town Centre Outdoor Arts Programme is an exciting, engaging and accessible series of high-quality performances in the heart of the community. The programme runs from June to September and is completely free for residents and visitors of all ages to enjoy and take part in.

Find out more about Redbridge Outdoor Arts

Theatre Orchard

Touring Network Partner

Theatre Orchard is a professional arts development charity and North Somerset’s first Arts Council England National Portfolio Organisation. For the past 12 years, we have partnered with outstanding artists and organisations to create transformative experiences for people and places in North Somerset.

We foreground creativity as the catalyst for cultural, community and economic regeneration; building the skills and confidence of people living in some of England’s most deprived areas, such as Weston-Super-Mare’s South Ward.

Find out more information

SO Festival

Touring Network Partner

SO Festival is an international street art festival offering a variety of outdoor entertainment and takes place in Mablethorpe and Skegness in Lincolnshire, UK.

The Festival’s mission is to work with deprived communities to make small and positive changes happen that have a big effect on people’s lives. They will do this by engaging those communities in East Lindsey facing societies biggest issues: poor physical and/ or mental health, unemployment, poor educational attainment, financial hardship and isolation. They will use ambitious and exciting collaborative culture projects as a tool to help local communities overcome their barriers to a better life.

The Festival is managed by Magna Vitae, working with Artistic Director, Jens Frimann Hansen and is supported by Arts Council England – as a National Portfolio Organisation – and East Lindsey District Council.

Explore more about SO Festival

Rochdale Feel Good Festival

Touring Network Partner

Rochdale Borough Council delivers public services to over 210,000 residents in Rochdale, Heywood, Middleton and The Pennines. Link4Life, the Rochdale Boroughwide Cultural Trust, is a registered charity responsible for cultural leadership, delivery and production in Rochdale Borough.

Since 2015 we have been working together to introduce family-friendly street theatre and outdoor programming to complement the core live music presented at the annual ‘Feel Good Festival’, a free to attend, large scale event located in the town centre.

Rochdale Feel Good Festival

Leicester City Council

Touring Network Partner

The City Festival, held in August, celebrates Leicester in the heart of the city. Taking place over ten fun-packed days, sites across the city centre come alive with entertainment including sports, culture, music, art, heritage and more. Incorporating well-established favourites like Leicester Belgrave Mela, Journeys Festival, City Music Festival, and the Old Town Festival, plus an exciting programme of outdoor performance

Lancashire Encounter

Touring Network Partner

Lancashire Encounter is an ambitious, high-quality creative festival for the whole of Lancashire that builds on the regions great tradition of making and taking part. Bringing together artists, arts organisations and communities from across Lancashire, the Encounter will be a true Lancastrian celebration.

Lancashire Encounter 

First Art

Touring Network Partner

First Art will inspire more people from Ashfield, Bolsover, Mansfield and North East Derbyshire to shape and experience great art.

First Art is the Creative People and Places programme for in this area and is supported through funding from Arts Council England.

First Art is a consortium programme led by Creswell Heritage Trust in partnership with City Arts, Junction Arts, Prince’s Trust and Ault Hucknall Environment Action Group. First Art puts people first in everything we do, providing first-hand quality experiences which allow local people to recognise the value of the arts and the role the arts can play in their own lives.

Find more information

Bournemouth Arts by the Sea

Touring Network Partner

The Arts by the Sea festival is Bournemouth’s annual celebration of culture, bringing an intriguing, exciting and carnivalesque mix of the arts to Bournemouth’s unique and beautiful locations.

The festival aims to increase opportunities for people to participate in the arts and enhance a sense of community while supporting talented artists creating work that makes a real impact on the audience and the town. Diverse music, art and dance, site-specific installations and large-scale spectaculars are all key to Arts by the Sea. Most events are family friendly and free to attend.

Birmingham Hippodrome

Touring Network Partner

Birmingham Hippodrome is one of the UK’s busiest and most vibrant theatres welcoming over 500,000 visitors every year to see world-class musicals, ballet, opera, contemporary dance, comedy and pantomime. In 2019, it celebrated its 120th year.

It engages many more through its ambitious programme of festivals, community work and transformational learning projects.

More information

Basingstoke Festival

Touring Network Partner

Basingstoke Festival is an annual arts festival designed to showcase the best of the arts locally, nationally and internationally. From music to dance, visual art to theatre, the festival aims to help audiences and those wishing to take part discover art in the most unusual places.

The festival is produced by Basingstoke and Deane Borough Council and hosts a variety of outdoor as well as site-specific work.

More information about the festival

Our Future Starts Here (The Culture House)

Touring Network Partner

Based in Grimsby, The Culture House aim to engage, excite and inspire by bringing more culture to more people. It develops and produces a full range of exciting and inspiring cultural projects, in partnership with artists, local communities and other stakeholders.

It contributes to increasing engagement and participation in culture and aims to positively impact on everyday life by presenting work in a wide range of indoor and outdoor local spaces.

Our Future Starts Here is a brand new project being in hosted in Grimsby in 2022, exploring pressing issues of our time through an innovative arts and culture programme. Edition One takes place at the end of May and Edition Two will take place in November.

More about The Culture House

Cheshire Dance

Touring Network Partner

Cheshire Dance produces Now Northwich, a new outdoor international dance and street art festival each October. It runs an extensive programme of dance across Cheshire, including professional development that attracts dance artists from across the country and inclusive dance engagement deeply embedded in community, health and education networks locally.

Cheshire Dance is also the accountable body and a founder member of Dance Consortia North West: a partnership of artists, organisations and HE institutions working to support artist and talent development as well as develop dance audiences in the North West.

More information about Cheshire Dance

Appetite

Touring Network Partner

Appetite is the Arts Council England-funded Creative People and Places programme for Stoke-on-Trent.

It is all about getting more people taking the lead in choosing, creating and taking part in art experiences in the places where they live. Led by New Vic Theatre, Appetite aims to get more people in the city to experience and be inspired by the arts.

Beginning in 2013, Appetite collaborates with local people and partners to a present a thrilling programme a world-class work on the streets of the city for all to enjoy.

The Mouth of the Tyne Festival 

Touring Network Partner

The Mouth of the Tyne Festival attracts the best local talent in a celebration of world-class street entertainment, live music and special one-off performances. To ensure a wide-ranging exciting programme, it brings in performers from around the world to offer a vibrant and diverse cultural event.

This year marks the 15th consecutive year of the festival. It brings families and generations together, allowing them to be entertained in an attractive coastal setting, with much of the entertainment being free.

Oldham Metropolitan Borough Council 

Touring Network Partner

Oldham Metropolitan Borough Council is the local authority of the Metropolitan Borough of Oldham in Greater Manchester, England.

Have a closer look at Oldham Council’s Arts and Events programme