Festivals

A £650m Government-backed insurance scheme could salvage £2bn worth of activity, the sector argues.

Finance

Outdoor arts

2023 Borough of Culture to go ahead despite council's financial woes

19 Nov 2020

Croydon is still developing the cultural showcase despite an order against non-essential spending, a review over alleged financial mismanagement, and a £67m deficit.

Beyond Brexit: Festival UK* 2022

Silhouette of a person in front of a neon pink light display

29 Oct 2020

Festival UK* 2022 is not a ‘celebration of Brexit’ but a celebration of the place we call home, argues Sam Hunt.

Collaboration

Brexit

Festivals are 'in danger of becoming invisible'

21 Oct 2020

Major festivals call for a Government-backed insurance scheme as events receive millions in emergency funding.

Censorship of funded artwork 'protected our reputation', council says

30 Sep 2020

A local authority under fire for censoring a politically-minded piece says it usually stays out of programming decisions - unless the programme conflicts with the views of its councillors.

New spaces, new places, new audiences

30 Sep 2020

Taking indoor activity into outdoor spaces offers one possible solution to the challenge of social distancing. Kate Rolfe explores how it’s being done.

Mass testing key to fully reopening the arts sector, MPs told

11 Sep 2020

Arts events could incentivise testing and restart the sector safely. But without a confirmed reopening date, there is little hope of recovery.

Arts at the heart of 'Festival of Brexit', boss says

09 Sep 2020

Teams applying for a share of £3m research and development funding must include STEM sectors, marking a shift in emphasis for the cultural showcase.

Pivoting: when a dance festival moves online

13 Jul 2020

Dance thrives on physical contact and live audiences, so how can the country’s largest youth dance festival move to an online format? Cameron Ball explains.

Dance

Outdoor performances given green light for July 11

10 Jul 2020

Indoor performance pilots with the London Symphony Orchestra will shape further reopening plans amid concerns about the safety of singing, brass and wind instruments.

2020 festivals: there’s no going back

silhouette of a person looking up at a coloured starry sky

09 Jul 2020

Having flexed our innovation muscles in response to the pandemic, now’s the time to assess what we’ve done and use this knowledge to develop new ways of working on a larger, longer-term scale. The Audience Agency team looks to the future of festivals online.

Coventry City of Culture delayed until May 2021

Paper Peace, part of Coventry 2021's first campaign, Humans of Coventry

03 Jul 2020

Partners say the new date means the cultural showcase “can be reimagined in response to challenges facing the country”.

Artists on the front line

Stopgap Dance Company performing outside at the Watch This Space Festival, National Theatre

17 Jun 2020

Outdoor Arts producers and artists are experienced at turning the most unpromising setting into a performance space, and their back-catalogue of shows is tailored for the outdoor. Could they be the first to woo back audiences in a socially distanced world? Angus MacKechnie looks ahead.

When the festivals fell silent

screenprinting a poster which says "There is power in the unity of humanity"

17 Jun 2020

Familiar voices may be muted this year, but some have found new ways to communicate with their audiences, and to reach new ones. Michael Eades asks some fundamental questions about the future for festivals.

Why student theatre will lead the way forward for the rest of us

20 May 2020

The energy, invention and will to survive shown by young companies will replenish and rekindle our industry says James Phillips, but unless the industry finds a way of nurturing them, a career in theatre will only be available to the children of the wealthy.

Education

Children and young people

Theatre

Co-creation and community contact

19 May 2020

How can an organisation that depends on face-to-face interaction with its audience sustain its work during the Covid-19 lockdown? Pat Moores asked Adel Al-Salloum how the The Spark Arts for Children is planning to face the future.

Children and young people

Learning the art of ‘un-producing’

a group of people sitting and standing whilst singing in a hall

29 Apr 2020

How are small theatre companies living through the current crisis – and what does the future hold for them? Matthew Austin's experiences will be all too familiar to many.

When the Games can’t go on

Bustling city centre scene in Shinjuku, Tokyo

22 Apr 2020

The stories behind the Olympic Games and other cultural mega-events are important, says Beatriz Garcia. Now is the time to look beyond their role as catalysts for real estate growth and commercial profit and rethink why we need them.

International

Coventry 2021: a lot more than a party

A photo of a brightly-lit sculpture on an outside wall

13 Feb 2020