Derby Will Be Taken Over By Young People's Reimagine Festival This Weekend

Young people from across the city and beyond come together to 'reimagine' Derby and bring to life one of Derby's iconic buildings as part of a two- day festival that highlights wellbeing and sustainability through music, dance, theatre and more.

Following a grey couple of years, Derby's young people have been working in collaboration to brighten up the city and make it a more exciting destination for young people.
The Reimagine Festival, which takes place on the 23rd and 24th of July has a jammed packed programme of performances and workshops to take part in.

One of the key venues for the festival is The Tramshed, one of the city's most historic buildings, which had until recently, lay empty for decades.

Beth Davies, a young person who has been involved in developing the Reimagine Festival, said: "Highlights of the festival have been having the freedom to fully develop and create spaces that truly reflect our own styles to represent important issues, such as the environment. I've thoroughly enjoyed working closely with the other Future Creatives and building a friendship with them along the way. I think it's amazing that such a unique space such as the Tramshed is available to take control of and design ourselves."

Derby is a city that has been identified by the government as an "Opportunity Area" with low social mobility, especially for younger people. The drive to improve outcomes for young people through the Arts has never been more crucial.

Sarah Younis, who is also taking part in Reimagine Festival, said "It gives an opportunity for young people to explore what Derby have to offer creatively. The reason why we didn't want to put the festival in a conventional arts space is because we wanted to explore unused spaces in the city. Also, because traditional arts spaces can be alienating for people not used to those spaces, so having it in a non-traditional space may attract new people, to discover the arts and see the talent that the young people of Derby have to offer."

Gillian Minogue- Management Surveyor of Clowes Development said: "We are delighted to support the cultural advancements which are very much alive in this area of our city. We are in a fortunate position that we can assist and support the Reimagine Project at the iconic Tramshed in Derby. We have also recently redeveloped a commercial space just around the corner for Marketing Derby; the Derby City Lab has been established to host various pop-up initiatives to engage, educate and drive innovation in our city centre. Clowes Developments are committed to supporting the ongoing redevelopment of the city centre."

Thomas Massey, another young person who has been involved in putting together the Reimagine Festival, commented: "I am part of the festival planning team and have had opportunities to take part in a number of different activities, including planning, prop making, song writing and creating the leaflets. People should come to Reimagine Festival because they get to see the amazing work Derby Theatre and all the partners do with young people across the city."

The Reimage Festival has also been engaging with primary school children too, including Firs, Becket and Bemrose primary schools- giving younger children the opportunity to perform and engage with local arts.

Reimagine Festival highlights include

Saturday 23rd July

· 1pm Derby City Saviours Parade with Artcore, travelling from Osnabruck Quare to the Tramshed. Join Artcore's spectacular parade full of creativity and become a Derby City Saviour! With a performance, puppetry, music and more to get your spirits up, young participants will travel through the city to the year 2060 bringing lots of colour and important messages about the effects of climate change.

· 5.15pm-7pm An 'Open Stage' hosted by New Generation BLM and featuring upcoming professional artists, including Idi Akz and Tdot at the Tramshed.
Idi Akz is a 16-year-old artist born in Nigeria, but is currently based in the East Midlands (Derby). He recently began to pursue his interest in music, beginning to release records of his own, with his own unique sound. He has over 4 million plays on Sound Cloud and has over 20k followers on Instagram. Tdot is a 20-year-old Rapper/Singer/Songwriter/Producer based within Derby in the East Midlands. Tdot has just finished working on a project with Zimbo Freemind, the founder of UK gangster rap.

Sunday 24th July

· 12.45pm-1.15pm BMX Display, DJ Set and Music all taking place outside
The Wardwick

· 11.30 - 12pm Finders Keepers with Derby Theatre, co-created with writer Simon Marshall. Children from Bemrose school perform a play written by local children from Stockbrook Derby. Finders Keepers, inspired by the children's novel 'Treasure Island' is set inside a Den made from all the rubbish collected from the local park. There are pirates, BMXs, and remote-controlled robots! Not everything left, lost or abandoned is rubbish, sometimes it can be a treasure.

Across the weekend, there will be a range of activities for festival-goers to get involved with;

Chill Zone * Crafts * Play Area * Films on Loop * Craft Workshops * Beat Making Workshop * Puppetry Workshops & Puppet Walkabout * Ribbon Making Workshops * Podcast on a Loop * Graffiti Wall *VR Project

Lauren Barkes, Reimagine Producer, said: "Young people right across the city have been creating everything for this festival from the bunting to the performances. Our Future Creatives have worked with us at Derby Theatre on all aspects of producing the event, whilst schools and community groups have worked with arts partners, Déda, Artcore, Sinfonia Viva, Hubbub Theatre, QUAD and Baby People amongst others, to make shows that tell the story of their area and their city. The young people wanted to bring colour back to the city following COVID. They've certainly done that and we're really proud of what they've achieved. Come and take a look!"

Festival venues:

The Tramshed
The Strand, DE1 1BA
Live performances, films and workshops

QUAD

Market Place, Cathedral Quater, Derby, DE1 3AS
Films and workshops

The Wardwick (Old Library)
The Strand, Derby, DE1 1 BS
Chill out space, craft areas and restrooms

Reimagine runs from 10:30am-8pm Saturday 23rd and 10:30am-3pm Sunday 24th July and is a free event.

To find out more about the full Fesitval, please visit https://www.derbytheatre.co.uk/reimaginefestival

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