Festival Of Thrift bids fond farewell to Kirkleatham after 10th-anniversary event 

ENVIRONMENTALLY-minded folk flocked in their tens of thousands to this year’s Festival Of Thrift, as it marked a decade of delivering its nationally-recognised celebration of sustainable living. 

The 10th-anniversary event also saw it paying a fond farewell to Kirkleatham, its home since 2016. In 2023 the festival makes its next move around the Tees Valley and relocates to Billingham. 

After a launch parade through Redcar, more than 50,000 festival-goers enjoyed the full-weekend programme of eye-catching artists and performers and hands-on family fun that the award-winning FoT is known and loved for. 

There was plenty of dancing, as the crowds joined Miss High Leg Kick as endangered birds raving to 90s classics and Things That Go On Things’ Compact Disco lycra-clad dancers, as they toured the site with a giant mobile disco ball. 

There was also Europe’s only all-female mariachi band, Mariachi Las Adelitas, a classical Indian dance performance Jham! by Srishti and performances by emerging and established singers, bands and DJs. 

Sustainability and the environment, though, were to the fore.

There was lots of debate and discussion in the Enlightentent, where a programme of talks ranged from our love of trees and the need to save indigenous insects, to a live discussion about the impact of the climate crisis on people living in the Amazon basin and northern India.

Booker prize winner Ben Okri read from his latest book, ‘Every Leaf a Hallelujah’, and special storytelling sessions for younger visitors, with children’s authors.  

Across the site, workshop sessions shared loads of skills – from how to budget, make ceramics, stitching and sewing, spoon-carving and planting a terrarium to making organic beauty products and sustainable washing detergent – while the ECOuture sustainable fashion show showcased designs by slow fashion designers and upcycled outfits created by pupils at Catcote Academy in Hartlepool. 

Beside Kirkleatham Museum, large-scale artworks, ‘On The Shore (Version 2)’, by Culture Declares Emergency founders Ackroyd and Harvey, and ‘Arrivals and Departures’ by Yara and Davina, created a thought-provoking impact on visitors.  

Diners pulled up a chair to join the 36-metre-long table for the festival’s communal meal The Town Is The Menu, and over 220 stalls selling food, drink, and artisan goods from independent traders were spread right across the site. 

FoT creative director Stella Hall said: “Our event is always lots of fun, but it is underpinned by a serious intent to share the benefits of living sustainably.

 

“People are facing serious cost-of-living challenges and we are in the midst of a climate crisis, so our message has never been more relevant. Our year-round mission encouraging people to make the shift to thrift continues.” 

• To find out more about Festival Of Thrift 2023 sign up at www.festivalofthrift.co.uk.