insideKENT Magazine Issue 64 - July 2017 | Page 166

CHARITY
Kent Charity Profile:
CANTERBURY FESTIVAL
Canterbury Festival is the largest festival of arts and culture in the region.
IT IS A CHARITY WHICH EXISTS TO PROVIDE POSITIVE CREATIVE EXPERIENCES FOR THE
LOCAL AND WIDER COMMUNITY, ATTRACTING 65,000 VISITORS EACH YEAR. THE FESTIVAL
BRINGS A RICH MIXTURE OF MUSIC, CIRCUS, THEATRE, COMEDY, CABARET AND MUCH
MORE, FROM AROUND THE WORLD TO SURPRISE AND DELIGHT AUDIENCES. THIS YEAR,
IMELDA MAY AND NEWTON FAULKNER ARE AMONG THOSE SET TO WOW AUDIENCES
BETWEEN 14TH OCTOBER AND 4TH NOVEMBER.
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Aside from the annual festival, did you
know that the festival team work
year-round from their office on
Orange Street? Canterbury Festival’s
development assistant, Clare
McCullagh, tells us a bit more
about the charity’s work throughout
the year… The Festival aims:
Canterbury Festival’s year-round
activity includes work with young
people, schools, community groups
and audiences, encouraging
engagement with the arts for people
of all ages and backgrounds. As an
organisation, we celebrate the brilliant
creativity of young people in the
region through our Made in Kent
strand, placement schemes and
schools’ poetry competition. ‘It makes a huge difference to the development of my confidence as a young performer to have such
excellent experiences to perform given to us by the Canterbury Festival.”
Joseph Morris, participant in the Schools’ Lunchtime Concerts
• to inspire artists to create and perform
• to champion emerging talent and support those seeking careers in the cultural industries by providing
opportunities for work experience, training and professional performance
• to contribute to the wellbeing of citizens of Canterbury and East Kent.
‘Probably the most important weeks of my life as I’m now 100% sure this is what I want to do as a career.’
Jack Brown, Assistant Stage Management placement
Made in Kent is the festival’s framework for providing opportunities for talent development and training
to young people in all the disciplines present in the festival programme – music (popular and classical),
theatre, visual arts, comedy, creative writing, stage management and more. The scheme demonstrates
a commitment from the festival to finding, developing and showcasing local emerging talent. The newest
strand for 2017 is the Made in Kent Dance Competition which will see three local dancers or troupes win
a paid performance slot in this year’s festival alongside professional mentoring. You can read more on
the Made in Kent section of our website.