THE organisers of a popular eco-festival have announced the dates for next year's event after being given £70,000 by the Government.

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

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 team is preparing to stage its annual celebration of sustainable living, which attracts up to 40,000 festival-goers, back in the woodland setting of Kirkleatham, near Redcar.

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.”