ORGANISERS have hailed the success of the 2015 Festival of Thrift and say plans are already afoot for next year.

The award-winning Festival, which won the Arts and Culture category of the Observer Ethical Awards 2015, took place at Darlington’s Lingfield Point for the third year running and showed its 45,000 visitors how reusing, recycling and upcycling can be fun, save money and benefit the environment.

This year’s festival also formed part of a weekend of celebrations for Darlington and the region as the town marked the 190th anniversary of the world’s first passenger steam train.

Amongst the festivities were thrifty workshops and demonstrations, art installations, fashion shows and much more.

Festival director, Stella Hall said she was delighted that the event continues to build on its initial success.

She said: “The national Festival of Thrift received a great reception and it was wonderful to see 45,000 people, nearly double the attendance in our first year, descend on Lingfield Point for a wonderful weekend of free, frugal family fun.

“2015 has been an extremely exciting year for the festival as we linked with Darlington’s 1825 celebrations to mark the arrival of the first passenger steam train.

“It is a revolutionary milestone in the region’s history which inspired the theme of this year’s packed programme.

“A big thanks to all our partners for helping to make it a success.”

Festival co-founder Wayne Hemingway added: “Our thrifters are a community and the festival is always a great opportunity for them to get together and share what they do, and the visitors to the event are certainly loving meeting the artists, makers and upcyclers and seeing the fruit of their efforts.

“Thrift is more than a trend – it’s here to stay, it’s a culture and a set of values to live by.

“The festival is certainly helping to get it engrained into the lives of people across the North-East of England and beyond.”

The festival team is now looking to the long term and, as well as planning for 2016, will be taking an active role with other partners in ensuring thrift and sustainability are a core part of the Tees Valley bid for UK Region of Culture 2025.