What is the Festival of Hope?

A celebration and exploration of hope and heritage led by young people working in collaboration with museums around the North West. The festival is produced by Blaze and is taking place through distanced and digital delivery in July and August 2020 with live events later in the year.

The Festival of Hope is part of Curious Minds’ Hope Streets project. Over five years (2018-2023), five museum partners (The Atkinson, Southport; Bolton Museum; Lancashire Museums; Tullie House Museum and Art Gallery, Carlisle; and West Cheshire Museums) will transform the ways in which they are working with young people. Hope Streets has been made possible thanks to a £977,000 grant from National Lottery Heritage Fund’s Kick the Dust programme.

What will happen?

The festival consists of five regional events: in Bolton, Carlisle, Lancashire (Clitheroe and Padiham), Sefton and West Cheshire (Winsford and Chester). Each event has been designed, commissioned or created by young people working alongside a museum partner. All the events in the festival will involve Hope and Heritage in some way, and will include a variety of art forms, including music, film, performance and visual arts.

Keep checking the Festivals page for more information about what will be happening in each region!

What has changed due to Covid-19?

The Covid-19 pandemic means the Festival of Hope events could not go ahead as planned in Summer 2020.

Our groups of young producers have been working hard with their partner museums to adapt their plans to create a series of online and distance delivery events taking place during the summer, which will be followed by live events towards the end of 2020 and into 2021.

Where will it happen?

Events this Summer will be delivered online or in physical ways that comply with social distancing regulations.

Later in the year we plan to deliver live events in a number of sites across the North West. Locations include:

• Bolton (Museum and town centre)
• Carlisle (Tullie House Museum and Art Gallery and various sites around the city)
• Lancashire (Clitheroe and Gawthorpe Hall, Padiham)
• Sefton (The Atkinson and other sites tbc)
• West Cheshire (Chester and Winsford)

When will it take place?

Distanced events will take place throughout July and August 2020. Live events will take place when possible to do so, either later in 2020 or early 2021. Look out for updates when specific dates of events will be announced!

The impact young people will have

The festival will allow young people to interrogate, agitate and ‘re-present’ their local heritage. We want to use this opportunity to convince heritage organisations that engaging with young people is essential, and can lead to exciting, outstanding results. The young festival producers will also positively impact their communities, highlighting the hope that can be found on the streets where they live.

Can I get involved?

If you are aged 11-25 and would like to join the festival production teams, or be involved in the festivals in another way, please get in touch using the Contact form on this website!