Festival of Thrift confirms dates and plans for return to Kirkleatham in 2021

The Festival of Thrift is set to return to Kirkleatham on Saturday 25 & Sunday 26 September 2021.

Confirmation of plans to stage a large-scale event next year follows the success of the festival’s bid for funding from the government’s Culture Recovery Fund.

Having taken the event online for 2020, the festival team is now gearing up to stage its hugely popular annual celebration of sustainable living, which attracts up to 40,000 festival-goers, back in the woodland setting of Kirkleatham near Redcar.

Festival of Thrift director Stella Hall said: “It was fantastic to hear we’d been successful with our bid. The hugely valuable boost from the Culture Recovery Fund means that we can continue some of the digital outreach that we started in lockdown with our pioneering online event, Thriftfest Upcycled, which reached a worldwide audience.

“It also means that we can build as a team and develop some more skills and make sure that we are still reaching the community.

“Importantly, too, we can now really start planning to celebrate together in Kirkleatham in 2021.”

Stella added: “Whatever happens between now and then, this lifeline grant means that we can still pull together as an organisation and we can’t wait to see everyone on 25 and 26 September 2021!”

After the 2020 festival was hit by the coronavirus pandemic, in true thrifty fashion, the festival team moved the event online as Thriftfest Upcycled.

‘Thrift Your Place’ activity packs, unveiled on the newly designed Thriftfest Upcycled website at the start of August to enable festival-goers to re-create elements of the fun of the festival at home, were downloaded in their thousands.

A day long live stream Thriftfest Live, was also streamed on Saturday 12 September, offering a packed programme included 13 activities, 10 workshops, 6 talks, 4 demonstrations and one beautiful moment as well unveiling footage from a mini Festival of Thrift that the organisers had put on for two streets in a secret location.

An audience of thousands from as far afield as New Zealand, Iowa in the USA, Spain, The Netherlands and right across the UK from the north of Scotland down to Cornwall and the South West of England tuned in throughout the day.

A virtual marketplace selling sustainable goods from selected independent traders, also up and running on the website, continues to attract virtual visits by shoppers.

Stella Hall added: “We’ll be announcing plans for next year’s festival in the coming months so watch out for details.”

Thriftfest Upcycled 2020 activities can still be found on our Activity Packs page.

The Festival of Thrift is one of 1,385 cultural and creative organisations across the country receiving a grant as part of the Government’s £1.57 billion Culture Recovery Fund (CRF) to help face the challenges of the coronavirus pandemic and to ensure they have a sustainable future urgently needed support.

£257 million of investment was announced on 12 October as part of the very first round of the Culture Recovery Fund grants programme being administered by Arts Council England. Further rounds of funding in the cultural and heritage sector are due to be announced over the coming weeks.

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