The highly anticipated second annual Dover Youth Festival 2024: PEOPLE PLACE NATURE CLIMATE is set to take place from Saturday 26th October to Sunday 3rd November, offering young people aged 11 a 19 an unforgettable experience over the Autumn half term. Organised by Future Foundry, this festival brings together the best of creativity, youth culture and the natural environment, providing a range of free activities and events in and all around Dover.
Building on the success of last year’s first event, el 2024 festival promises an even more exciting line-up, designed to encourage creativity, environmental awareness, and community spirit among young people. Highlights of this year’s festival include a youth market, a free pop-up cinema, bushcraft, outdoor cooking, stone carving, natural dyeing, drawing, gaming, photography, fashion, football, ceramics, stargazing, beach sculpture, y más. The wide variety of activities ensures there is something for everyone, from hands-on creative workshops to outdoor adventures celebrating nature and the environment.
The festival was inspired by a 2023 survey conducted by Future Foundry, which revealed that Dover’s young people are already actively engaged in culture and the outdoors, but feel underserved by a lack of opportunities to connect and engage further with creative and nature-based activities within the town. En respuesta, Future Foundry launched the festival as a platform where young people can explore their passions, develop new skills and realise their potential to positively influence the world around them.
The festival’s success last year saw Dover’s youth come together to participate in a vibrant cultural exchange. One of the key partnerships was with Dover Athletic Football Club, which helped galvanise a town-wide campaign for a Girls’ Football Team, highlighting the festival’s potential for empowering young people to create positive change. Future Foundry’s Project Space at the Charlton Centre was transformed into a dynamic festival space, featuring a café area, chill-out zones, studios, and a pop-up cinema, which returns again this year.
Speaking during last year’s festival, Adam Coleman from Arts Council England said:
“We talk about Future Foundry’s work a lot at Arts Council, because we think they’re doing something quite remarkable in the way that they’re working, and the way they’re really listening to young people, and the way that they are supporting young people and artists to develop their own things without taking all the credit themselves. It’s quite a remarkable, meaningful way of working.”
As the event continues to grow, it offers an important opportunity to spotlight the vital role that young people play in shaping a more sustainable and inclusive future.
Join this Autumn half-term and experience the power of youth, nature, and creativity!
The Dover Youth Festival 2024 is made possible with the support of Arts Council England, Farming in Protected Landscapes programme from Defra and the Kent Downs National Landscape, Colyer-Fergusson Charitable Trust, Asociación de la comunidad de Dover