This weekend, celebrate sustainability and culture at the Festival of Thrift on the North Yorkshire coast. The free outdoor event returns on Saturday 25th and Sunday 26th September.
An eclectic programme will include thought-provoking talks, quirky performances, and live music. There’ll also be an array of workshops for all ages, tasty food and sustainable crafts. You can enjoy watching a specially-commissioned dance piece and the North East premiere of an aerial theatre production. Check out the architect-designed Welcome pavilion, made using recycled and waste materials. Alongside a larger than life Master of Ceremonies who loves a good fake tan.
Festival of Thrift 2021 will have a special focus on water with performances and activities that highlight the plight and importance of looking after our seas, rivers, lakes, canals and streams. And how we can combat the effects of climate change.
Projects with the local community also feature at the festival. See the beautiful bamboo structure, created as part of the ambitious Bridge2Bamboo public art project, on display. And hear powerful public speaking by young people from Redcar and Hartlepool who have been honing their presentation skills with the Young People’s Podium.
Festival of Thrift’s quirky highlights
Cast-Away by Highly Sprung is a lively outdoor performance exploring the impact of today’s throwaway society on our waterways. It features a new approach to aerial theatre with a unique gyroscopic flying machine. Watch performers dive, twist and float over 26 feet in the air, in this family-friendly show.
Also at the festival is Sea Saw by Carlos Ara and Company. It’s a show where the last two islanders in the world are adrift in a wide and lonely sea of plastic. ‘How did things come to this?’ they wonder, as they carry out their age-old daily routines, clinging determinedly to the last remnants of the life they once lived on land. One day, they are visited by a mysterious creature from the depths of the sea. Are they ready for the chaos that ensues?
There’ll be performance parkour on a vessel made of scaffold with On the Strandline by Urban Playground. It asks, in the face of rising sea levels, ‘how do we avoid having to choose who gets on the boat?’
And pulled by a mythical phoenix, the cart of curiosity emerges from the dust to seek out performance venues. Once it finds its space, it rebuilds into a puppet theatre to tell tales of ecology and hope. Catch the pop-up Phoenix Rising by Whippet Up as it wanders around the festival.
You can also see Dandyism by Patrick Ziza. This dance piece is inspired by the gentlemen of the Congo, exploring expression, energy and the expressive dynamism of dance originating in East Africa. And through distinctive clothing, celebrates individuality, humanism, gender and identity in our increasingly divided society.
Events that focus on sustainability and the environment
Festival of Thrift’s ECOuture fashion show is an eclectic fashion showcase created by some of the area’s upcoming designers. They’ve collaborated with the Teesside charity Daisy Chain with support from Teesside University to create the show. And the Fixit Cafe will be back to fix the world (and all of the things you broke since last year) over a cup of tea.
There’ll also be a series of thought-provoking talks on sustainability over the weekend, from the serious to the fun stuff. Hear speakers including Wayne and Gerardine Hemingway, fashion rental app founder Jade McSorley, marine specialist Jean-Luc Solandt, and Britain’s Coupon Kid Jordon Cox.
Plus, the festival’s unique al fresco community meal is back. This year it’s inspired by the coastal town of Marske-by-the-Sea. Join the 36-metre-long communal table for an unforgettable three-course vegetarian lunch menu inspired by the people and the stories of Marske, and created by cooking collective The Ugly Duckling. Tickets for this cost £7.
Finally, there’s lots of workshops for you to get hands on with. Campfire cooking, noisy toys, spoon carving, learning sea shanties and creating submersible submarines are just some of the things you can enjoy.
Looking for more quirky festivals to visit this autumn? Try one of these!
When: 25th and 26th September 2021, 10am – 5pm
Where: Kirkleatham Museum, Redcar, North Yorkshire TS10 5NW
£: Free admission, parking costs £6
More info: www.festivalofthrift.co.uk