Projects

We commissioned four songwriters to work with groups of children and young people from Redcar and Cleveland. The groups and songwriters have co-created songs exploring the heritage of their communities and their hopes for the future. Older residents in local care homes have been involved in the project too.

The Junction Foundation secured a grant from the North East Cultural Learning Fund and commissioned Saltburn Folk Festival to work with one of their Saturday Youth Groups. We engaged professional actress and singer Victoria Holtom to explore folk tales with the children and young people.

Saltburn Folk Festival took over a stage at Redcar’s Kite Festival, giving some of our Folk Degree artists an opportunity to perform publicly in a totally new context. We also had a Tees Millions grant to build artworks with a team of volunteers, based on our unique folklore motifs, in the run up to the Kite Festival.

Young musicians and singers from Outwood Academy Bydales in Marske have worked with professional folk musicians Tom Kimber and Jon Doran to delve into manuscripts, recordings, song books and contemporary folk, forming a new youth folk band

We are continuing our partnership with Access Folk, who are helping us to collaborate with local folk clubs and make connections with community choir members. The Big Sing at the 2025 Festival is made possible through this partnership.

We've developed links with this local social support group for adults with a range of additional needs, and provide their members with free tickets so they can participate in the Folk Festival.