Popular thrift family festival returns home

A popular thrift festival is returning to a seaside town next month.

The Festival of Thrift will be back at Kirkleatham Museum in Redcar after spending the past four years being hosted in Billingham.

Thousands of visitors are expected to attend the free family festival on 4 and 5 July, between 11:00 and 17:00 BST, which is set to be full of arts, crafts, fashion, food, performances, workshops and local traders.

Councillor Alec Brown, leader of Redcar and Cleveland Borough Council, said: "The festival brings significant cultural, social and economic benefits to the borough and showcases Redcar and Cleveland as a place of creativity, innovation and ambition."

A spokesperson for the council, said the "much-loved" award-winning event would "again transform the historic grounds of Kirkleatham Village into a vibrant playground of ideas, imagination and positive planet action."

Recognised nationally as one of "the UK's most innovative and inspiring environmental festivals", between 25,000 and 40,000 visitors were expected to attend, they said.

Visitors will have the chance to get "hands-on experiences designed to show that sustainable living can be joyful, creative and accessible to everyone".

This year, Festival of Thrift is part of Global Streets, a national partnership that brings "remarkable work" from around the world to Tees Valley.

Festival director, Tanya Steinhauser, said returning to Kirkleatham "feels incredibly special".

"Festival of Thrift has always been about bringing people together to imagine a greener, fairer and more joyful future, and there could not be a better place to do that than here in Redcar and Cleveland".

The event "demonstrates that sustainable living can be exciting, inspiring and full of joy," she added.

Visitors are encouraged by the organisers to travel sustainably where possible.

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