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Contact: Kate Redway, giftfestival.kredway@gmail.com
Press images here
This weekend, the Gateshead International Festival of Theatre (GIFT) is offering families free fun-filled, creative games and activities, with a digital Little GIFT: House Party, from Saturday 2 May- Sunday 3 May.
Every year at GIFT, families and kids take part in creative events that entertain, stimulate and challenge, in the festival’s Little GIFT strand of programming. This weekend, the festival’s digital lockdown version brings all these activities online, inviting little people around the globe to a fun party celebrating the festival’s tenth edition, run by Gateshead family-focused company Chalk.
Families will be joining crafting workshops, dancing down a catwalk show, and dazzling their music skills by grabbing kitchen instruments for an international pots and PAN-DEMIC band. The weekend closes with audiences being asked to share a tenth birthday 'gift' for the festival- be it a dance, picture, photograph, pledge or a piece of writing, and all of these can be shared online in a global GIFT gallery for artists.
Willing revellers can get their hands on a free downloadable party pack, full of colourful resources including challenge instructions, decorations, costume designs, a menu of GIFT ideas and much more, by booking here ahead of the festival weekend. Using only household items (think Yorkshire tea boxes and plain white paper) activities are designed to be simple and handy to recreate. Participants can do as much (or as little) as they like, at their own pace, and get creative by going ‘off piste’ in their interpretations of the events.
With hours of fun for all ages, join the Chalk team on Saturday 2 May, from 10am -12pm and 5pm-6pm, and Sunday 3 May, from 10am - 11am. Chalk engages the whole family through music, film and design, allowing children to experience and form their own ideas and opinions.
Jilly Hargreaves of Chalk, said: "We are delighted to be part of the GIFT 2020 programme. At a time when families are at home thinking about new ways of connecting with the 'outside world', we wanted to create 'events' which are whimsical, accessible and require no special materials or prior knowledge. A party where the audience is the host, desiging the costumes and creating the atmosphere. Hopefully families will be inspired to create moments of joy, interaction and performance which they share with the GIFT community, or maybe just start a really great pan band!"
GIFT is an artist-led festival which was created to make extraordinary things happen across Gateshead, and this year’s digital edition aims to connect audiences and artists self-isolating at home and share, and inspire, creativity.
Audiences can buy tickets for over 30 international performances and interactive events, on giftfestival.co.uk for a Pay What You Decide donation.
GIFT is supported by artists, funders and partners including Arts Council England, Gateshead Council and BALTIC Centre for Contemporary Art.
-ENDS-
FULL EVENT LISTINGS HERE
FESTIVAL PRESS IMAGES HERE
Join the GIFT conversation @GIFTfest and on #GIFT2020
Notes to editor:
About GIFT:
Founded by Kate Craddock, GIFT was first established in 2011 to provide a platform for performance work which is not normally programmed in the region, and to offer professional development for contemporary theatre makers. GIFT serves as a creative and cultural response to the ongoing redevelopment of Gateshead, with activities connecting the regenerated Gateshead Quayside with the more commercially redeveloped town centre. It is the only festival dedicated to contemporary theatre in the North East. Organisers and participants see it as an important opportunity to bring high quality cultural activity to the area and to offer a showcase for North East artists.
About Chalk:
Chalk is an arts organisation based in North East England. The organisation was created in 2015 as a reaction to a gap in provision specifically for younger children and their families to enjoy high quality art, music and film experiences which were unexpected and ambitious. With a strong focus on engaging both the parent and the child the organisation has developed a vast portfolio of innovative collaborations and commissions carried out with arts organisations in the region including: BALTIC Centre for Contemporary Art, GIFT Festival, Curious Festival, Tyne and Wear Archives and Museums, Gateshead Council, Seven Stories, Summer Streets, The Great Exhibition of the North, Hartlepool Waterfront Festival. Chalk are the producers of MAPS Festival, a festival of music, art and play which takes place in venues across Newcastle and Gateshead in February each year.
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