Our vision is to use the power of the arts to make our part of the world a truly great place to live, work, learn and play. Norfolk & Norwich Festival is a charity (no. 1164424) made up of one of the country’s longest-running arts festivals and a region-wide programme of creative engagement that particularly focuses on improving the cultural offer for children and young people. Discover a little about our work within.
Xenia Aidonopoulou’s Skydiver brought magical moments to the under 5s.
Photo: Luke Witcomb
Cover: L’Homme Debout brought us Mo & the Red Ribbon to welcome in the 2024 Festival.
Photo: Mary Doggett
A Year in Review
Our Snapshot covers 12 months from summer 2023 to summer 2024 and both the Festival itself and our new year-round Festival Connect & Create delivery. Through 17 days in May we once again presented an intoxicating blend of local, national and international artists across some wonderful Norwich venues and sprawling out across the county, from King’s Lynn to Great Yarmouth. We commissioned new work for the Adnams Spiegeltent – a sell-out circus show from Colombia, Corazón and we explored exciting musical residencies with Mahan Esfahani and Laura Cannell. We were also delighted to stage the UK premiere of Rachel Ní Bhraonáin’s MOSH. It formed part of an exciting programme of dance and movement presented in partnership with Norwich Theatre.
The last twelve months has also marked the first year of delivery of our programme for children, young people and communities, Festival Connect & Create. Reaching across the region, it nurtures projects in those schools
and communities with least cultural provision and forges links between artists and educators. 2024’s Festival showcased the first fledgling outputs from this programme, which is set to take flight over the coming years.
Our one organisation approach looks to seamlessly integrate into the Festival programme quality creative outputs from our schools and community work alongside those more established national and international artists – a truly inclusive celebration of our place!
While the Festival remains stable and dynamic, the climate for us, just like many arts organisations across the country is challenging. The cumulative effects of rising costs and fewer pounds in people’s pockets makes our challenges all the greater. As always, we are immensely grateful to all the loyal volunteers, supporters and audiences who love the Festival. Within these pages, you can get a little snapshot of all your support enables. Thank you!
Daniel Brine, Artistic Director & Chief Executive
Chair of Trustees
This summer Brenda Arthur stepped down as Chair of Norfolk & Norwich Festival after nearly a decade in the role. A heartfelt thanks, from all at the Festival, for her dedication, passion and valuable guidance.
We look forward to working with our new Chair, Richard Ross over the coming years to continue to deliver our vision.
Top: NoFit State Circus’ Bamboo thrilled audiences at the Welcome Weekend. Photo: Luke Witcomb Above: Brenda Arthur and Daniel Brine. Photo: Hugo Glendinning
The Festival
For 17 days each May, Norfolk & Norwich Festival brings an exciting programme of music, performance, visual arts and literature to Norwich and across Norfolk. This year opened with the spectacular and captivating tale of Mo & the Red Ribbon – in which a 25 foot tall puppet paraded through the streets enshrouded in ribbons, colourful balloons and thousands of people. Hot tickets included Luke Wright’s Silver Jubilee, King Creosote, and the World Premiere of Circolombia’s Corazón in the Adnams Spiegeltent. We presented a world premiere of
Jonny Greenwood’s eight-hour organ epic, 268 years of reverb as well as UK premieres of high octane dancetheatre show, MOSH and the interactive sound installation, Memory of Birds City of Literature, presented in partnership with the National Centre for Writing, returned with a rich blend of talks, workshops and the everpopular Page Against the Machine and our schools and communities work was peppered across the programme with presentations made by local people including The Book of Thetford and On Our Doorsteps
‘The quality of the music making has been fantastic; virtuoso performances which moved and provoked me.’
Audience
Member
Jeanefer Jean-Charles’ Patois was one of several world premieres of work over the Welcome Weekend. Photo: Luke Witcomb
At a glance
PERFORMANCE & PRESENTATIONS
17 days in May
100+ artists and companies
32 venues in Norwich, Diss, Great Yarmouth, King’s Lynn, Sheringham and Thetford
33 free performances and events
39% of the programme represented artists from diverse and different backgrounds
AUDIENCE HIGHLIGHTS
60,000+ audience 17% travelled to Norfolk specifically to attend the Festival
5,528 Adnams Spiegeltent tickets sold
‘I thought the free events during the opening weekend were absolutely brilliant. They created a fantastic atmosphere in the city’.
Audience Member
FOR THE WHOLE COMMUNITY A SPOTLIGHT ON NORWICH & NORFOLK
210 YoungNNF tickets sold*
138 volunteers giving...
2,227 hours of their time 83% of audience say the Festival is welcoming to the whole community
‘The Festival has grown, improved and widened its scope to try and involve a wider audience. For this it deserves all praise’.
Audience Member
50m media reach including...
232 press, online and broadcast features
656,000 views to the Festival website
300,000 social media reach
£2.5m of economic impact
*YoungNNF is our subsidised ticket scheme for 18-25 year olds
The Festival Audiences
Art needs an audience. We aim to bring the very best art to as wide an audience as possible. From Norwich, across Norfolk and beyond you come to celebrate with us.
60,000+ total audience
97% of audiences rate their whole Festival experience as either ‘very good’ or ‘good’
We reach a wide spectrum of ages
29,500 accessing free events, of whom...
25% were first-time attenders to the Festival, and... 35% were under 35 years
16-24yrs
25-34yrs
35-49yrs
50-64yrs
65-74yrs 75yrs+
Audiences enjoying the free performances as part of the Welcome Weekend. Photo: Luke Witcomb
‘What a brilliant asset for Norwich and Norfolk’
Audience member
Nuturing artists
We work with artists from down the road and around the world, supporting them to take risks, develop and present new work and explore new spaces. Through presentations, residencies and new commissions we help bring their work to wider audiences and help support the country’s cultural infrastructure.
200+ artists employed, including...
42 local artists
2 artist residencies
‘It’s such a treat to have nationally and internationally recognised artists... and to see emerging artists we wouldn’t ordinarily see in Norwich.’
Audience Member
Aurora Orchestra’s mesmerising
3 UK premieres
11 World premieres
220 schoolchildren presenting new work as part of the Festival
Eroica in Norwich Cathedral. Photo: Luke Witcomb
Children, Young People & Communities
This year was the first of our new engagement and participation programme for children, young people and their communities delivered by our Festival Connect & Create team. Their works spans Norfolk, Suffolk, Cambridgeshire and Peterborough and covers three interlinked strands: Creative Places is where our placemaking work occurs. It takes a very local approach, supporting artists and communities, often in those areas with least cultural provision, to work together on creative projects.
Through our Creative Schools programme, we deliver, facilitate and co-create artist residencies and creative activities that bring vital opportunities direct to some of the schools most in need.
We also work with educators, artists and emerging arts professionals in our Creative Leaders programme, developing their knowledge, skills
and understanding, to enhance the future cultural offer for children, young people and their communities.
Each strand of work supports and is in dialogue with the others to help build a stronger cultural infrastructure for the region.
Excitingly, for the first time, a selection of this work was platformed during 2024’s Festival. We saw aspiring scriptwriters from Hewett Academy work on Molly Naylor’s Make Me; hundreds of schoolchildren creating their own imagined guidebook in The Book of Thetford; and communities neighbouring Sweet Briar Marshes relating their experiences of the place in On Our Doorsteps. As our work develops, you will be able to enjoy more high quality creative activity across the Festival programme nurtured and grown by young people and communities here in the east.
Working across the region, our Festival Connect & Create team have delivered activities in over 20 locations including 16 supported bursary projects, more than 60 school sessions and around 20 place-based project sessions plus network meetings, events and professional development workshops. Here’s where we’ve been working…
Communities
CREATIVE PLACES
Our work has touched communities from the Fens in the west to Great Yarmouth in the east as we collaborate to activate exciting creative projects.
20 sessions of delivery
64% of delivery in the country’s most deprived areas*
1,393 people directly engaged with Creative Places projects
8 place-based partnerships established
CREATIVE SCHOOLS
Artist residencies that develop creative skills in children and young people, support teachers and enable artists to develop their practice in those settings.
66 sessions delivered in schools
574 participants in...
28 schools
89% in places of need **
*1-3 of the UK indices of multiple deprivation
** Priority areas identified by the DCMS where investment and engagement is too low.
CREATIVE LEADERS
Bringing creativity to schools and communities requires people. We provide networks and nurture teachers, artists and the next generation of arts leaders – our young people.
16 bursaries awarded providing...
£40,000 of support direct to freelance practitioners 50% of our Young Creative bursary recipients are from low socioeconomic or culturally diverse backgrounds, or identify as having a disability
100+ young people have joined our Young Creatives network, FLOCK
Creative Places: case study
As part of our Creative Places work we developed Nature Connects Usa strategic partnership with Norfolk Wildlife Trust (NWT) through which we will employ creative approaches to foster attitudinal and behavioural change as we all look to tackle the climate crisis.
NWT recently acquired Sweet Briar Marshes, a 90-acre site on the outskirts of Norwich full of fen, grazing marsh and old hedgerows. A site of Special Scientific Interest, NWT aim to restore the marshes’ biodiversity for wildlife and communities alike.
To support their engagement programme we developed a project called Kinship with writer and producer
Daisy Henwood and sound artist Milly Kirby. Daisy delivered workshops in community centres and primary schools in the Mile Cross and Marlpit communities adjacent to the marshes.
There she captured participants’ thoughts, feelings, and experiences of what nature meant to them culminating in the creation of a sound piece capturing the ‘voices’ of the marsh.
Over 100 local children and adults participated in the workshops, building a sense of belonging - a ‘kinship’ - both with one another and with this important natural space. The resultant sound piece formed part of the public launch of Sweet Briar Marshes in May 2024.
‘It’s definitely made me think I need to look out to nature more… trying to ground myself more and enjoying the moment as we’re so easily lost in our thoughts.’ Participant
Poet Daisy Henwood sharing her work at Sweet Briar Marshes. Photo Denzil Dean
Children, Young People & Communities
Creative Schools: case study
As part of our residency programme bringing creative opportunities to schools across the region, we worked with long-time Festival collaborators and artists Andy Field and Beckie Darlington.
The Book of Thetford saw 210 children from four Thetford primary schools - Admiral’s Academy, Drake Primary School, Norwich Road Primary School and Redcastle Family School - create an imaginative ‘guidebook’ featuring a child’s perspective of their town.
Part fictional imagining, part actual guidebook, The Book of Thetford allowed young people to write stories about life on their streets as they see it. They drew new maps of their neighbourhood, named those places they care about that may not be
noticed by others, and proposed new monuments to honour their previously unrecognised heroes.
For readers, whether local or visitors to the area, the guidebook acts as an invitation to look beyond the familiar and predictable and to experience Thetford anew, through the eyes of some of its youngest inhabitants.
The young people worked with illustrators and designers to bring the book to life and it was launched to audiences by the children themselves in a packed celebratory event in The Carnegie, Thetford, as part of Norfolk & Norwich Festival 2024.
Around 1500 copies of the book were distributed free around Norfolk as part of the project.
‘Thank you for picking us, we don’t get to do things like this a lot’
Pupil, Redcastle Primary School
Children from Admiral’s Academy workshopping ideas for the book. Photo: Jo Hayes
Children from the four schools signing The Book of Thetford. Photo: Jo Hayes
Andy Field and Beckie Darlington with some of the children during the launch. Photo: Jo Hayes
Redcastle Family School pupils exploring Thetford locations. Photo: Jo Hayes
Organisation
Sustainability
We seek to encourage dialogue and inspire change through our artistic and learning programmes and, while we recognise our activity has an impact on the environment, we are committed to measuring, understanding and reducing that impact.
3,000+ compostable plates and bowls used in Festival Gardens 0% of Festival waste sent to landfill 20% of waste turned into refuse-derived fuel
We’re working with Norwich City Council on a pilot for a Green Code for events.
1 E-cargo bike from Norfolk County Council’s bike library scheme to support Festival logistics
12+ projects and presentations delivered exploring sustainability and the environment
We also made use of both mains sewerage and mains power in Festival Gardens for the first time.
Top: Our reusable plastic glasses ensure we minimised waste in Festival Gardens.
Bottom: Feast from the East - a communal vegetarian dining experienceall procured from Norfolk growers, farmers and makers. Photo: Mary Doggett
Photo: Mary Doggett
Partnerships
Norfolk & Norwich Festival consists of our annual Festival and our yearround programme of schools and communities work.
Collaboration is a vital process in what we do. To all our partners and funders, your support helps create and present bold new work, delivers creativity to the classroom and brings a massive cultural and community celebration to our city and county.
Partners such as National Centre for Writing help shape our literature programme while Without Walls help us bring you the country’s finest new outdoor shows. With Norwich Theatre, we collaborated on an exciting dance and physical theatre strand and our Festival Connect & Create team have established ambitious partnerships with Norfolk Wildlife Trust, Breckland District Council, Thames Festival, Rouen 2028 and many cultural organisations and schools around the region.
The business community have long been an integral part of our work. We are grateful to all of you, including longstanding partners Adnams, Greater Anglia and Jarrolds.
Many individuals help us too. Thank you to our Festival Supporters who generously make annual gifts; to each of you who makes a donation when booking a ticket; and all the volunteers that bring hours of time, dedication and enthusiasm to the Festival.
A number of grant-making organisations share our vision. Thanks go to them all, particularly longstanding supporters the Ellerdale Trust, the John Jarrold Trust and the Paul Bassham Charitable Trust.
It is this spirit of partnership and collaboration that is central to our approach. It helps sustain our work and brings inspirational events and activities to many more people.
All full list of partner organisations can be found overleaf.
Our partnership with Thames Festival Trust will see around 500 young people from Norfolk creating artworks as part of an international project to be showcased at Norfolk & Norwich Festival in 2025. Photo: Matthew Usher
Organisation Partners
We are so grateful that these organisations and individuals share our vision to use the power of the arts to make our part of the world a truly great place to live, work and play. Thank you all!
Principal Funders:
Arts Council England
Norwich City Council
Funders:
Norfolk County Council
National Lottery Heritage Fund
Trusts, Foundations & Grant
Giving Organisations:
The Arts Society Norwich
CAVATINA Chamber Music Trust
Culture Ireland
The Ellerdale Trust
The John Jarrold Trust
The Paul Bassam
Charitable Trust
Norfolk Community Foundation through the Borough Council of King’s Lynn & West Norfolk
PRS Foundation
Programme Partners:
In Situ, co-funded by the Creative Europe Programme of the European Union
National Centre for Writing
Norwich Theatre
TOAST Poetry
Without Walls
Presenting Partners:
BBC Radio 3
BBC Radio Norfolk
The Cathedral of St John the Baptist
Caroline Fisher Projects
Diss Corn Hall
Epic Studios
Freshly Greated
The Garage
GroundWork Gallery
Hewett Academy
HighTide
Historic England
Houghton Hall
LJ Hope Productions
Norfolk Contemporary
Art Society
Norfolk Folklore Society
Norfolk Museums Service
Norfolk Wildlife Trust
Norwich Arts Centre
Norwich Castle Museum & Art Gallery
Norwich Cathedral
Norwich University of the Arts originalprojects;
Out There Arts
OUTPOST Studios
Sainsbury Centre
Sainsbury Institute for the study of Japanese Arts and Culture
Sheringham Little Theatre
St Georges Theatre
St Peter Mancroft
Thames Festival Trust
TOAST Poetry
University of East Anglia
We Live Here
Corporate Partners & Support:
ABC Taxis
Adnams
Artlist
Ashtons Legal
Big Sky Living
Birketts
Brewin Dolphin
Chadwicks
Dipple & Conway
Epos Now
Fairfields Farm
Future Radio
Hatch Brenner
Hollinger Print
Howes Percival
Jarrolds
LINK Radio
Mills & Reeve
Motus Truck & Van
Newsquest
Savills
The Forum
Yawn Marketing
Schools & Education:
Abbey College Ramsey
Acorn Park School
Admirals Academy
Anglia Ruskin University
Cavalry Primary School
Clenchwarton Primary School
Cobholm Primary Academy
Cromer Junior School
Drake Primary School
Edward Worlledge
Ormiston Academy
Fireside Junior School
Gaywood Primary School
Harford Manor School
Heacham Junior School
Hewett Academy
Lakenham Primary School
Langley School
Nelson Academy
Norwich Road Primary
Redcastle Family School
Sheringham Woodfields School
Snettisham Primary School
Southtown Primary School
St Nicholas Priory
Primary School
University Of Plymouth
Walpole Cross Keys
Primary School
West Lynn Primary School
West Town Primary Academy
Westwood Primary
Schools & Communities
Partners:
20Twenty Productions
4D dance
Barrington Farm
Baseline community centre
Breckland Council
Britten Pears Arts
Cambridge Junction
Dance East
East Cambridgeshire LCEP
East Suffolk LCEP
Enjoy Great Yarmouth
Fenland Young Creatives
Freshly Greated
HighTide
Historic England
Ipswich LCEP
Lowestoft LCEP
Metal
My Cambridge
Norfolk Libraries Service
Norfolk Museum Services
Norfolk Rivers Trust
Norfolk Wildlife Trust
Norwich 2040
PEACH
Periscope
PHACE
Rouen 2028
SOUNDYARD
Swaffham Town Council
Thames Festival
Theatre Royal Bury St Edmunds
The Forum
Thetford LCEP
Westacre Theatre
Festival Supporters:
Steph & Paul Allen
Brenda Arthur
Simon Back
Frances Berridge
Lynn Biggs
Suzanna & Roger Bunting
David & Anthea Case
Nick & Juliet Collier
Tony & Juliet Colman
Justine & Damien Conway
Jonathan Cooper & Daniel Brine
Fred Corbett
Nicholas & Caroline Dixey
Jim Durrant
Frank & Di Eliel
Roger & Lesley Everett
Ann Ford
Jane Hawksley
Mark & Lesley-Ann Hewett
Len & Rachel Hobson
Gemma Hoskins
John Howkins
Caroline Kennedy-Chivers
Alice Liddle
Greg Lovett
Mary Lowden
Ian & Helen McFadyen
Jim McKay
Jamie McLeod
Jonathon & Karen Needham
Dave Plummer & Lesley Whitby
Stephanie Renouf
Nicole & Keith Roberts
Roger Rowe
Amanda Sandland Taylor
& Roger Holden
Baroness Freddie van Til
Olwyn & Paul Venn
Jim & Sara Webber
Mollie Whitworth
Chris & Sue Williams
Paddy Wilson
and to all those Supporters and donors who wish to remain anonymous.
Festival Board of Trustees
Thank you to all those trustees past and present, who have given time to the Festival’s work over the last year.
Brenda Arthur
Frances Berridge
Julia Carruthers
Maanik Chadda
Lucy Garland
John Paul Garside
Paige Gouldthorpe
Kate Heyman Carreno
Marc Jaffrey
Chris Sargisson
Martin Mitchell
Corrienne Peasgood
Richard Ross
Chris Yeates
Patrons:
Caroline Jarrold DL
Sir Nicholas Bacon Bt OBE DL
And special thanks to the 138 volunteers this year –without whom the Festival could not happen.
Norfolk & Norwich is a registered charity, number 1164424
Support Us. Support a Brighter Future.
Through our annual Festival and yearround schools and community work, we bring culture and creativity to over 100,000 people each year. Our funding has been at near standstill for over a decade, while costs continue to escalate. The pressure on our organisation is considerable but our ambition has not diminished. You can help us do more.
£1,000 helps feed our 130 strong Festival volunteer team
£2,500 supports a professional development bursary for a young person
£5,000 makes an artist-in-schools residency possible
Here’s how you can help: Make a donation
An immediate impact on our work. You can donate from as little as £2.50 when buying a ticket or make a donation anytime online.
Supporter scheme
Make a big difference from as little as £15 per month. Get closer to our work and directly support elements of the Festival programme or our schools and community work.
Legacy giving
Remembering Norfolk & Norwich Festival in your will can leave a lasting legacy for future generations and build on our work nurturing artists and supporting young people.
Corporate partnerships
We can provide bespoke solutions around social or environmental responsibility, brand awareness, hospitality or audience engagement.
Trust & Foundations
We regularly seek grant support for our work, but are always delighted to hear from potential partners, so please get in touch if our work can help you achieve your aims.
Donate, find out more or contact our fundraising team at nnfestival.org.uk/support-us
Left: Your support helps us commission and present new work like Circolombia’s Corazón
Photo Luke Witcomb
Principal Funders
Norfolk & Norwich Festival is a registered charity, number 1164424
