Now you have booked onto one of our workshops at Festival of Thrift, your email is your ticket so make sure you have it on your phone or device when you arrive for the workshop. We would rather you didn’t print it but if that is your preferred option please show a member of staff and recycle it when you go home.
This year we are asking all visitors to familiarise themselves with our COVID guidelines in our FAQs so we can keep everyone safe.
Vinyl DJs playing the finest in old school soul funk and reggae. Neil has been djing for over 30 years at various bars clubs and festivals. He also has his own nights under the banner Back to Black. His latest booking has been for the Hardwick live festival in Aug where he played on the soul stage. See stage information for running orders.
“Inspired by his Grandad Jimmy’s sing-a-long Pub Table antics in bygone days, Wildcats of Kilkenny frontman Mike McGrother brings his raggle-taggle band of hillbilly smilers to Thrift complete with a hefty dose of Shanty singing backing vocalists in the form of the mighty Infant Hercules! Expect a foot-stomping mix of Celtic meets Cowpen; Shanty meets Stockton and Americana meets Acklam as Mike fuses his boundless passion for Teesside with songs to singalong with and help us smile through our Sunday! Featuring members of The Wonder Stuff, Funk Collective and Big Red and the Grinners the boys are back in town and ready to blow every man, woman and child down with a big cheeky grin and hefty dose of Teesside blarney. Learn the songs with them as they pop up on site or just come down to the music stage and enjoy the Haverton Hillbilly Party!
Construction is the biggest contributor to CO2 emissions globally, a whopping 38% of the total. Surprised? Change may be overdue but it’s coming now – architects are driving it, constructors are up-for-it and clients are demanding it. In this inspiring discussion we’ll discover some of the brilliant people, ideas, innovations and sustainable design that are up-ending the way we build around the planet… and locally – looking at a regeneration project starting at Kirkleatham Hall School later this year. with: Timothy Crawshaw – International Planning and Development Consultant, Chair of Tees Valley Nature Partnership, Vice President of the Royal Town Planning Institute (Chair). Christine Thornley – Chartered Architect at Grove Studio Architecture and Chair of RIBA North East. Mark Barlow – Managing Director at LOGIC architecture who are developing Kirkleatham Hall School.
Co-commissioned with Dance City, Newcastle. The last two islanders in the world are adrift in a wide and lonely sea of plastic. ‘How did thingscome 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? A show about two cultures coexisting in the same environment and the struggle to find a place of mutual understanding from which to move forward. Location Pink Zone
Almost as old as the oldest civilisation is the myth of the flood. The story of a few who survive the waters through divine intervention, and the help of a boat… but the flood we face is not a myth, and we have no one to save us but ourselves… Commissioned by the Time & Tide Bell organisation; The UPG Team bring their distinctive performance-parkour language together with a vessel made of scaffold and a story told by a child to ask, in the face of rising sea levels, how we avoid having to choose who gets on the boat? On the Strandline is performed by the Emergent Ensemble – a group of five early career performers brought together in the time of Covid to survive the industry lockdown. Pink Zone – Behind Kirkleatham Museum
Whether you’re lost in the desert or working in an office we all need water. From Indra to Zeus to Thor & Niord, there are thousands of tales of those who bring water. Stories of mermaids, sea-monsters, wild rivers, spooky lakes – come join one of the UK’s best storytellers for magical stories to refresh the heart and minds of all the family! ‘Wit, wisdom & a voice like chocolate!’ Honor, Manchester ‘A storyteller so spell-binding it left me breathless!’ Divea, Delhi Giles Abbott started storytelling in 2000 after sudden and serious, but not total, sight loss in 1998 made reading impossible. He is the UK’s only professional blind storyteller and has performed for children, families and adults in festivals, theatres, arts centres, schools and more throughout the UK, in Europe, Africa and India. His storytelling is known for his commanding stage presence, flair for language and “a voice like melted chocolate”. Location pink zone
Dandyism is centuries old, and for the original African dandies, it represented male empowerment and post-colonial freedom. African Dandies appropriated the flamboyance of the 18th Century English & French gentlemen in defiance against slavery, referred to by some as a resistance movement. By the 1960s it had become a phenomenon, a way to preserve a legacy of African culture and challenge conventional male stereotypes. More recently Dandyism has encompassed the fight for gender equality by the Congo’s Female Dandies movement. Dandyism is a celebration of style and cool as well as a concern for humanism, gender and identity in our increasingly divided society. In this new performance work choreographer Patrick Ziza explores the Dandy’s fashion and style as an assertion of freedom, the evolution of this cultural phenomenon into a modern-day norm, and how it relates to exploring, respecting and valuing individuality in the 21st Century. Dandyism is flamboyance: dress sharp and present your best self. Choreographer Patrick Ziza moved to Gateshead from Rwanda as a teenager. As a choreographer he has developed his own style of movement, embodying the raw, unrefined energy and expressive dynamism of dances originating in Central East Africa. Location Pink Zone
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 tells tales of ecology and hope. Music for the show is by the Saltburn based ‘Phoenix Voices’ Community Choir. Like all of Whippet Up’s pieces Phoenix Rising is designed, built and performed with local people who find, or are referred into, Whippet Up for a wellbeing boost. Phoenix Rising is a family friendly performance suitable for all ages and is available as a stand-alone ‘pop-up’ show and also as a show with workshops. The workshops provide a chance for families to design, create and decorate new puppets that they integrated into the show. Walkabout (stopping in nursery blue)
Insectopolis swarms into Kirkleathham Art and science will combine as a special urban insect conservation zone arrives in Kirkleathham for the Festival of Thrift. Dancing with bees combines street theatre, music, games, science and education featuring performers from the Neighbourhood Watch Stilts International. Visitors will be able to meet and take selfies with a giant Bombus terrestris bumble bee, join in the waggle dance with giant honey bees, plant a special pollinator friendly flower and learn many extraordinary other things about insects, including all the things you can do to help them. The event aims to highlight the world’s recent 40-50% loss of insects and suggest what we can do to save and regenerate them. Paul Miskin, company Director, explained: “Recently many people have noticed the lack of dead insects on the windscreens of cars. We depend on the services of these small creatures for all our food and they are a crucial link in the chain of life that supports us. “Recent research by Nicholas Tew has shown that what people in cities and towns plant in their gardens, window boxes, and back yards and the products we avoid using can make a real difference. This projectt aims to show ways in which everyone can help get our beautiful world back on track and is supported by the Arts Council of England National lottery scheme and Creative Darlington.”
The fast fashion revolution has brought a vast choice of cheap clothes right to our doorstep – so where’s the catch? Well, worse-off garment workers, soaring use of virgin-plastic fabrics, mountains of textile waste… Already a new model eco-army are pushing back and disrupting the march of the fashion industry – second-hand is again first choice for many, clothing rental is about to boom and everything from pineapple husks to coffee grounds are being turned, like magic, into fabric. Welcome to the future! with: Lynne Hugill – Fashion Course Leader at MIMA School of Art & Design, Teeside University. Jade McSorley – Top Model and founder of the LOANHOOD fashion rental app. Neeraj Sharma – CEO of Daisy Chain and Stockton’s Charity Superstore.
A welcome return to the festival… Faster than a speeding puffin, more chocolatey than a chocolate labrador, descending from apes (if they are tall enough) Biscuithead and the Biscuit Badgers release your ears to play backgammon undisturbed. Tuba, piano, drums, ukulele, tickling and rubbing your senses into a fun stew. Enjoy yourselves, if you can; Biscuithead and the Biscuit Badgers are greater than you think.