ORGANISERS of a popular festival celebrating thrifty living are preparing the celebrate their 10th anniversary year.
The Festival of Thrift will take place in Kirkleatham on Saturday 24 and Sunday 25 September.
It will be 10 years since the event first got going, when it was staged in Darlington.
Organisers now have a programme of events through the year aimed at celebrating sustainable living.
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The theme of this year’s event is ‘Our Common Wealth’ – tying in with the 2022 Commonwealth Games, which will be hosted in Birmingham in the summer, and looking in more depth about the things people have in common.
Festival of Thrift Creative Director Stella Hall said: “It seems like only yesterday that we staged the very first Festival of Thrift and now, hundreds of thousands of visitors later, our weekend celebration is nationally recognised as the best free festival focused on achievable ways to live sustainably.
“We are as excited as ever to be spreading our thrifty message but celebrating a tenth anniversary makes it extra special in 2022."
The Festival of Thrift team is finalising a programme featuring artists and activities from all over the world to entertain festivalgoers and highlight sustainability issues.
And applications will open shortly for local makers, food producers, artisans, upcyclers, fixers and recyclers, craftspeople and artists who want to trade and provide workshops and entertainment at the event.
Festival of Thrift’s Fashion Show, ECOuture, will return for the September festival weekend featuring a range of sustainable and slow fashion outfits created by some of the UK’s upcoming designers.
This year’s festival will coincide with Middlesbrough Art Weekender.
Throughout the year, the team is releasing podcasts on sustainable topics, which were recorded in the EnlightenTent talks tent at the 2021 event.
The first one focusing on sustainable architecture is available now from www.festivalofthrift.co.uk.
The Festival of Thrift Community Interest Company (CIC) board is being expanded.
Three new appointments have been made and further recruitment aimed at encouraging young and underrepresented communities to join the board is also underway.
Julie Ward, Nina Byrne and Mike McGrother join founding board members Stella Hall, John Orchard Wayne Hemingway and Gerardine Hemingway to support the festival’s future strategic direction.
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The festival’s Executive Director Emma Whitenstall added: “What an exciting year we have ahead of us! The past ten years have seen Festival of Thrift expand from an annual weekend event into the amazing year-round programme of activities focusing on sustainability that reaches out locally from our Redcar home and across the UK to audiences of all backgrounds.
“We’re so proud to have been able to develop new jobs, training and employability skills for young people in our local community with many more opportunities to get involved in the very near future. Young voices are a powerful catalyst for climate action and essential for the development and growth of Thrift.”
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