When we express ourselves in our own language, it shifts atmospheres and changes our DNA. Live art, performance, story, music and theatre feed us.

We learn, understand, discover and then unlearn to find something better.

Festivals ask, what else is possible? It’s a joy to direct and create inclusive spaces and communities that celebrate and invite us to discover more.

New pathways. New routes.

You get it.

“Castaway Arts Fest was a 3 day creative celebration bringing together new, original and accessible performing arts that breaks boundaries from across the Yorkshire and Humberside region, as the doors were opened to a new creative space in Goole.

Directed and curated by Sarah Louise Davies with and for the charity Castaway Music Theatre Goole, with 25 remarkable creatives from Leeds, Sheffield, York and Hull. The festival was funded by Arts Council England and supported by Jack’s mum who bakes decent cake.”

Celebrate difference.

THE MISSION

How do we transform a reclaimed community building (old Salvation Army), with a vision to grow this space into an inclusive arts venue and live events hub that puts Goole on the map?

I know, let’s throw a 3 day festival. Joy.

We’ll invite artists from 360 degrees around the region to Celebrate.

To challenge us, share and catalyse new ideas, relationships and open the newly painted doors of what’s possible in this old dock town.

The origin of the word celebration means “honour”. What does a culture of Honour look like moving forward in live arts and how we use space?

WHY HERE?

Goole used to be a super connected port of exchange, avocados for rice, exporting ideas, importing knowledge and industrial innovation.

Now, many people who live around Goole and the East Riding area are isolated. 75 percent of residents don’t have regular access to transport, social events, community or creative shared experiences. These are things we need as humans to function.

The members of Castaway Goole Music Theatre show up here every day for family, connection, inspiration, learning and life. Our community of adults experience social deprivation, autism, severe mental health difficulties, learning difficulties, physical disability and other barriers in their homes. Here there is the space, skills, freedom, resources, and an incredibly hard working team of creative practitioners, leaders, artists and specialists. We’re here to grow, perform and express in our own language, breaking down these barriers to find meaning & make new.

Over 3 days Castaway Arts Fest provided a feast of accessible, diverse and pioneering new performances and workshops made by artists working across different forms. The feast included family + comedy, multi-sensory + digital workshops, intimate storytelling, acapella song theatre, live music experiments, international dance, and a cabaret co-hosted with the local neighbourhood.

WHO & WHAT WAS ON…

It was important that we had a diverse, accessible and inclusive feast on offer. On schedule and off the map, on stage, in the car park and the cafe. A balance of experiences that are with you and for you: unexpected, digital, solo, interactive storytelling, big music, small stories, laughter, bold poetry, useful film. To engage in unique ways. Collaborative spaces to find out what happens when these things meet together. Supernovas.

Here’s who came to celebrate with us. Their work wakes us all up. Explore their stuff.

Thank you friends.

ARTISTS

Phoenix Dance Theatre. Mission: “To inspire and entertain through dance, and to develop new audiences for dance, whilst enriching and embodying the spirit of a multicultural Britain for over 4 decades”. Each year the company embark on national tours presenting dance productions to audiences throughout the UK and beyond, reaching 20,000 people and engaging with 6,500 people through the company’s education provision.

Tom Sherman. Musician. Composer. Community Music leader. Tom works regularly in SEN schools, using music as a tool for communication and expression, and is part of a team of eleven musicians working within the wards of Manchester Children's Hospital.

Fascinated by the power of words and music woven together, Tom says: “I like to explore the innate musicality of language. I often work with tape parts, and I'm interested in doctoring exciting recordings, resetting them within a new context”.

What I love about Tom is that he always experimenting and exploring new ways to create music in groups who wouldn’t always have called themselves “musicians“ or “artists“. I invited him to be a part of Arts Fest because I knew he’d bring something improvisational and “in progress“ (on purpose!) to share the bold, vulnerable and raw process as the performance itself. Where I believe the most exciting stuff happen in music anyway. For Tom the process of experimenting, improvising, composing and performing are inextricably linked.

Third Angel Theatre. Belief that theatre helps people to understand their place in the world.

“We think that small stories are as worth telling as big stories”.

They make performance that speaks directly and honestly to its audience. Making work that encompasses intimate performance, playful theatre, live art, installation, film, video art, research, science documentary, physics, photography and design. Third Angel have shown work in theatres, galleries, cinemas, office blocks, car parks, swimming baths, on the internet and TV, in school halls, a damp cellar in Leicester and a public toilet in Bristol. They operate across the UK, Europe to Switzerland, Portugal, Russia, Lebanon, Brazil and the USA.

Little Mighty & Dick Bonham. Dick is a big hearted producer and a huge supporter of emerging artists in the North. Little Mighty simply “make theatre happen”. Dick knows how to ask good blunt questions, MC a rowdy raffle and equip young artists to practically realise their ideas. Investing in remarkable artists doing meaningful work.

Verity Standen. Harmonies and playful vocal techniques. Yes please. Verity Standen is a composer, director, performer and choir leader. Her work focuses on the human voice - gathering people together to sing, and exploring different ways that people can experience music. Her performances have been staged in theatres and concert venues, galleries and museums, dance festivals, castles and cafes.

Sometimes Verity collaborates with highly-experienced professional performers. Sometimes she works with community choirs and untrained singers to bring work to life. Often there is a combination, with each composition tailored to the specific group of voices she is working with. She has travelled to perform and collaborate with singers in China, Belgium, Poland and the Czech Republic, as well as up and down the UK, from the Scottish Islands to London’s Southbank Centre.

Invisible Flock. Art. Research. Environment. Ehange. Invisible Flock are an award winning interactive arts studio based at the Yorkshire Sculpture Park operating at the intersection of art and technology. These guys are always inventing new ways to see, create and understand the world. I invited them down to run a workshop for our youth members. They brought lights, lego, wires and things came to life. I’ve never seen Jack so in his own skin.

James Whittle. Composer. Performer. Conductor. James is a playful and theatrical artist at heart. He assembles musicians by dotting them around car parks, clowns about with his violin case and dances tango with his cello. He has fun on stage and off. To James “Music is Theatre”, (the title of his epic PhD research). He’s scored radio, film and television and led collaborative compositional programs in communities, inviting people to play, perform & compose their own sound.

Matthew Bellwood. Writer and storyteller. He works on meaningful projects that engage communities as co‐authors and creators. I love the intimacy of Matthew’s work, how he connects deeply with each participant using the power of story.

The Assembled. A group of young musicians from the University of York dedicated to working in an experimental, exploratory manner. There is no fixed line-up, and the music is devised collaboratively through structured play. Sometimes starting from scores, sometimes from focused improvisation exercises.

“We meet to explore free improvisation, moving away from notated scores, giving you the chance to explore the tones and timbres of your instrument and explore visual elements of a performance in a particular context.” - Lottie.

Engine Room. An inclusive theatre company that brings together makers from different artistic disciplines in a collaborative process that embraces and values difference. They engage in a process of vibrant collaborative exchange between artists, performers, audiences and communities to create theatre that communicates on an immediate and human level. Engine Room understand that sometimes words are not enough. “We use a language of music, movement, storytelling, film and digital arts to connect more deeply with ourselves and others”.

Engine Room is a force for change, breaking down barriers for artists with learning and physical disabilities and mental health conditions, challenging preconceptions about who makes and accesses high quality art.

Common Ground Theatre & Hannah Davies. Hannah plays with words and structures important stories. She knows how to get a myth and rap out of anything. Playwright, theatre-maker and multi-slam winning spoken word artist, Hannah is one of the most direct and hardworking humans I know. We’ve shared space in dressing rooms, cars, stages, airports, houses and theatre companies. We learnt Capoeira together and she taught me to defend a punch. Hannah also helps women unlock and share their voices and runs a poetry/spoken word slam night like an urban goddess.

There were intentional spaces for artists to connect and meet. Bear new fruit. Physical spaces to connect, free messy spaces for families. Learning and eating.

From the first people we meet in the car park to the final thoughts on the journey home.

The whole experience.

With pips.

THE FUTURE

We need more spaces for celebration & artists in our cities when we open our doors again. In our neighbourhoods & our homes. Spaces that we build, own & belong together. Spaces where local, regional, national and international cross pollinate.

Festivals re-build community.

Festivals replace logos with celebration.

Festivals are powerful eco-systems.

New deeper connections forming. Cellular, social and under our nervous feet. We stop to notice that we share this evolving ground. The need to create on it, co-create with it and for it. Using what we find already in our hands.

Doors are off now. Joy doesn’t need a roof or extension lead.

Castaway Music Theatre is an arts charity based in Goole, East Yorkshire, creating life-changing opportunities for young people and adults with learning and physical disabilities, autism conditions and mental health difficulties. Offering weekly performing, training, educational and recreational opportunities in music, drama, contemporary dance, film and multimedia, led by professional artists working with participants from the 360° surrounding rural areas and across the region.