Countdown to the Festival of Thrift in Billingham
The event takes place next weekend, 20th & 21st Sept
This time next week the Festival of Thrift returns to Billingham with its hugely popular and unmissable celebration of culture, sustainability and style.
On Saturday 20 and Sunday 21 September visitors can thrift over a packed weekend of free events with more than 80 outdoor performances and installations including 10 north east premieres, dozens of hands-on workshops and over 90 stalls from independent traders and makers.
Over the weekend Billingham Town Centre and John Whitehead Park will be transformed into a joyful creative hub for thrifty and resourceful living, exploring imaginative ways to live well while treading lightly on the planet.
The organisers are inviting everyone to get involved. Visitors can learn some thrifty skills, save resources, craft with natural materials, walk the catwalk in vintage fashion, enjoy interactive installations, entertaining performances and help to collectively imagine a caring, sustainable future.
Festival of Thrift Co-Creative Directors, Dominic Somers and Tanya Steinhauser, said: “More than ever this year, the festival brings people together in joyful encounters, transforming Billingham and fostering a sense of belonging and resilience through creativity. Through the work of artists, performers and hands-on-workshops we can all enjoy and explore imaginative ways to live well and more sustainably.”
Festival co-founder and board member Wayne Hemingway MBE adds: “It’s 12 years since we launched the inaugural Festival of Thrift. We had ambitions for it to grow and have impact but what has been achieved across its various Tees Valley locations over the years is phenomenal. Over half a million people have attended Festival of Thrift, over 500 small businesses have traded with us, there have been over 2,000 performances and workshops and the economic impact is immense. It’s always a highlight of my year. See you in Billingham!”
For the first time this year, Billingham Town Centre becomes Slow Fashion Alley, an area entirely devoted to sustainable style, self-expression and conscious fashion choices. Highlights include premieres of dance theatre shows by Dutch companies playing with fast fashion and over-consumption and second-hand fashion from the UK’s best charity retailers with national initiative Charity Super.Mkt.
Slow Fashion Alley also hosts the return of Best in Show (on Saturday at 2.15pm and Sunday at 2.20pm) where unique style takes centre-stage on the catwalk as rosettes are awarded for the day’s most stylish individual, young person, family or dog.
John Whitehead Park is the focus of a celebration of the natural world, with world-class performance and installations. Highlights include renowned circus artists constructing giant sculptures made solely from bamboo (BAMBOO, Saturday and Sunday 1pm and 4pm) and a street kiosk installation where visitors can sip tea whilst listening to stories collected from all over the world including from Billingham residents (World Kiosk, Saturday and Sunday, 11am-5pm).
There are also plenty of playful installations, performances and workshops for families, children and young people including a water machine full of puzzles and games (Hydropunk, Saturday and Sunday, 11am-5pm, ), a heart-warming tale of two friends going on a magical journey using willow, sound and movement (Early Weaves, Saturday and Sunday, 12pm and 3pm), climate change told with handmade puppets (Like a Tree, Saturday and Sunday 12.30pm and 2.30pm) and a collaborative world of self-built dens and mud kitchens (Right to Play, Saturday and Sunday 1pm-4pm).
Other immersive performances and installations invite people to slow down and connect with nature, including rocking gently on a boat and giving their future forecast in the ship’s log (Life Boat, Saturday and Sunday, 11am-5pm), explore the deep connections people have with trees (The Museum of Memorable Trees, Saturday and Sunday, 11.30am, 2pm, 3.15pm), and listen closely to a birdwatching story about a disabled white-tailed eagle that explores themes of hidden disability (The Hide, Saturday and Sunday, 12.45pm, 2.30pm, 4.30pm).
Festival of Thrift is also a showcase for major new Tees Valley productions. This year the event presents the world premiere of Mud Plant Rave by Institute of Thrifty Ideas – a new production by the creative team behind Festival of Thrift with original work by award winning poet Helen Mort and Newcastle-based sound artist Me Lost Me (Mud Plant Rave, 11.45am, 1.45pm, 3.45pm). Audiences are immersed into the world of the Mud Ravers reconnecting with the natural world through ritual, movement and community. Structured as a journey through a plant’s lifecycle, it invites people to reflect, move and deeply engage with the environment and each other.
The festival’s free drop-in workshop programme sponsored by Thirteen aims to inspire individual and community action with workshops including sustainable seed sowing, make your own eco-cleaning products, vase-making from plant waste and fungus, recycled paper jewellery, and sculpting with a tonne of clay.
Over 90 stalls from independent and ethical traders, selling food, clothing, jewellery, accessories, crafts and artworks, will be at the event including stalls from local and national sustainability organisations including The Vegan Society, Sustrans, Tees Valley Wildlife Trust, WWF, Climate Action North, Cultivate Tees Valley, RSPB, Environment Agency and Tees Valley Fairtrade.
The festival’s Street Food & Drink Area includes three licensed bars, coffee and non-alcoholic drink stalls, and a variety of street food caterers and delicious desserts – alongside some retro Vinyl DJ tunes from Neil Massey and guests.
Festival of Thrift takes place on Saturday 20 - Sunday 21 September 2025, 11am – 5pm in Billingham Town Centre and John Whitehead Park. Free entry.
For more information visit www.festivalofthrift.co.uk
The full Festival programme is online or as a downloadable pdf at [https://www.festivalofthrift.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/FoT-Programme-2025-S-1-1.pdf ](https://www.festivalofthrift.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/FoT-Programme-2025-S-1-1.pdf |newtab)
Festival of Thrift in Billingham is easy to travel to by walking, cycling and public transport. Sustrans is providing Festival bike storage racks at the main entrance to John Whitehead Park and will also have a stall offering bike checks, maintenance and much more.
The area is well connected by buses and trains and a new partnership with Stagecoach has led to increased services on Sunday 21 September on bus routes 36, 52 and 34 to help people to get to the Festival.
For visitors driving, parking is available in the main Festival Car Park for £4 a day (opposite John Whitehead Park on the Finchdale Avenue side) to avoid congestion in surrounding residential areas.
The next Festival of Thrift will take place in 2026 and an exciting announcement by Festival of Thrift organisers about next year’s event is coming very soon.
To keep in touch with Festival of Thrift sign up to the mailing list online at www.festivalofthrift.co.uk