Puppets will be popping up in some unexpected places as part of a number of new features included in Ripon Theatre Festival’s expanded programme.

Organisers have added a series of pop-up mini events throughout Ripon, working with shops, cafés and city attractions to bring puppet shows and storytelling to unusual and intimate surroundings.

This includes Puppets for Breakfast at Wetherspoon’s Unicorn Hotel, a suitcase puppet show The Hare and the Moon in the Cabmen’s shelter in the Market Place and the GreenHouse shop on North Street, and Beached, an immersive puppet show at Ripon Cathedral, where performers and audience members wear headphones for the experience.

St Wilfrid’s Crypt in the Cathedral will see Fell-Foss Theatre’s rolling performance of The Wanderer and expert storyteller Gav Cross will bring Twisted Tales for Terrible Children to the somewhat spooky Curzon Cinema Cellar and the Courthouse Museum.

The second Ripon Theatre Festival will take place from Wednesday, June 7 to Sunday, June 11, featuring four days and five nights crammed with performances and activity.

Drama highlights include visits from up-and-coming theatre companies performing in Ripon Arts Hub, a return visit from open-air specialists Illyria with their family show Robin Hood at Fountains Abbey, and a production of Sense and Sensibility in the garden at The Old Deanery.

The festival will also be welcoming BBC Radio 4 favourite and gentle Northern activist Kate Fox, and Liz Grand with her one-woman show Where’s Mrs Christie?.

Rhubarb Theatre’s A Wonderland of Games will feature as part of the free family fun in Spa Gardens on Sunday June 11.

There are many festival events for children and families. In addition to shows at Ripon Library on Thursday and Friday , there will be street theatre, walkabout acts and pop-up performances throughout the weekend.

Circus, street theatre and community combine on Saturday at two performance zones, the Market Place and Minster Gardens (adjacent to Ripon Cathedral). Featured entertainment includes a comic escapology show from The Maniax and Dizzy O’Dare’s award-winning Giant Balloon Show.

Spa Gardens will be the focus of free family-friendly theatre and puppetry on Sunday June 11. The festival promises a “boredom-free zone” with visits from Hoglets Theatre, Rhubarb Theatre, Frolicked and Strange-Twig Theatre, alongside music and dance from community performers. A highlight of day will be performances of A La Puppet Carte when three electric tricycles open up to reveal three heart-warming puppet shows from Thingumajig Theatre.

Festival characters and performers will also visit Sunday’s Little Bird Artisan Market, adding additional colour and fun in the Market Place.

Thanks to the support of local businesses and key funders, much of the Festival is totally free to enjoy and ticketed events are low-cost.

Festival director Katie Scott said:

“We are delighted that this year we are offering many performances as ‘pay what you can’ events. We know that families in particular are feeling the financial crunch and this allows ticket purchasers to select their chosen amount or to opt for a free ticket. This is also a way of encouraging people to come to multiple performances by spreading their budget and trying different shows in different venues.”

The Ripon Theatre Festival programme also includes Overblown! a community-led evening of sketches and music, a premiere performance of work by local poet Ian Gouge, a musical travelogue for Sunday brunch from Steve Bonham, and Bread is Life – a lunchtime meze event where both Syrian stories and food will be shared. The festival opens on Wednesday, June 7 with dystopian comedy Happy Place at Ripon Arts Hub.

The Ripon Theatre festival is set to return in 2023 after a successful first year.

The event will run for five nights and  four days between June 7 and 11 and will feature both indoor and outdoor performances at venues across the city.

Festival director Katie Scott, told the Stray Ferret:

“We are aiming to build on the incredible first year response, which saw audiences of more than 2,500 people across four days.

“Another key aim is to make the festival as affordable and accessible as possible with a wide range of free entertainment popping up at locations across the city centre. Pop-up venues include the Market Place, Cathedral, Little Ripon Bookshop and Curzon Cinema as well as walkabout acts touring the streets of the city.”

Street performances proved popular at the 2022 festival

New this year is a dedicated family day in Ripon Spa Gardens on Sunday June 11, where everything will be free to watch. Events will include puppet shows, open-air theatre, community performances and hands-on activities.

Ms Scott, pointed out:

“As well as the weekend of pop up theatre and street entertainment, there will be a host of ticketed events at the wonderful studio space at Ripon Arts Hub, and a swashbuckling Robin Hood coming to Fountains Abbey with his merry men, courtesy of Illyria.

Fountains Abbey will provide a dramatic setting for Illyria’s performance of Robin Hood.

“The opening night, Wednesday June 7, will see young people leading the way as the festival works with the YMCA in promoting up-and-coming local theatre company Forget about the Dog with their intriguing show Happy Place.”

She added:

“The festival is also working with charity Ripon Dementia Forward to provide a sensory theatre show brought directly to two local and friendly community spaces.”

“Community performers are key to the weekend once again. Rehearsals start soon for the community cabaret event and Festival organisers also encourage any theatre groups, dance troupes, comedy acts or storytellers to get in touch if they’d like to take part in the pop-up events across the weekend.”

The festival is being supported by  businesses who are sponsoring and helping keep the it affordable. The main sponsor is Wolseley UK and other corporate sponsors include Specsavers, Elstob & Elstob, Econ Engineering, Valentino’s Ristorante and The Arcade Ripon.

Event details are available at www.ripontheatrefestival.org or follow on Facebook @ripontheatrefestival

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Organisations, individuals and a business that have made a positive contribution to life in the city, gathered at Ripon Cathedral for the St Wilfrid’s Stars Awards.

The event was organised by Ripon Together as part of the cathedral’s 1,350th anniversary celebrations and more than 150 people were present to discover who had won the trophies designed and produced by Jennyruth Workshops.

At Friday’s presentation evening, the Dean of Ripon, the Very Revd. John Dobson, pointed out that the star was the symbol of St Wilfrid, who founded the cathedral in 672 AD.

He said:

“All of those who were nominated are stars for what they do to contribute to the life of Ripon and we thank and applaud them.”

One of the St Wilfrid’s Stars Awards produced by Jennyruth Workshop

Hundreds of knitted stars made by the Ripon Community Poppy Project were hung high in the nave for the presentation evening and there was special mention from Dean John for Alwyn Hartley, who produced more than 200 of them.

The dedicated team of knitters who have decorated the city with extensive displays for the Queen’s platinum jubilee, Remembrance Sunday and the Winter Wonderland at Spa Gardens, were winners of the award for tourism.

Lou Jones, who owns Oliver’s Pantry cafe on North Street with her husband Tim, received the business award and was recognised for ‘boosting the community’s wellbeing and signposting them to all that Ripon has to offer.’

St Wilfrid’s Stars youth award winner Rosie Sturt, is pictured with the Mayor of Ripon Councillor Sid Hawke

The Mayor of Ripon, Councillor Sid Hawke, presented the youth award to Rosie Sturt, for her work in leading a team of young volunteers who have delivered a Lego Club at Ripon Library.

The aim of the club is to help young children to increase their social skills and confidence in the wake of the covid lockdowns.

A St Wilfrid’s Star also went to Sarah Jaques – a Ripon Library volunteer and co-ordinator – who won the community award for her tireless work.

Her citation read:

“Without volunteers, there would be no library and there would be a great gap in the life of the city.”

For the overall volunteer of the year award the panel of judges selected Gloria Sturdy, who has devoted her life to supporting many causes in the city.

This includes the provision of lunches each Thursday at Holy Trinity Church for people in need, to sewing PPE kits for frontline workers during the pandemic.

The culture award was presented to the Ripon Theatre Festival organising committee, in recognition of staging a highly successful inaugural performing arts event from a standing start.

Caroline Bentham, who has supported groups in Ripon through her community scrap fund, which raises money from the sale of recycled metal, received the environment award.

As well as being a supporter of many good causes, she is an active Girl Guide Leader and an assistant county commissioner.

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A weekend of theatre kicks off in Ripon tomorrow with street performers, a Shakespeare play and puppeteering all taking place in the city; some for free.

This will be the first Ripon Theatre Festival and will take place from tomorrow, June 23 to Sunday, June 26.

There will be more than 40 events from 20 professional acts taking part in this packed weekend of events.

Saturday is the main day of action with performances from The Comedy Waiters, The Green Finger Folk, the Million Dollar Mermaids and The Flying Wheelnuts.

Events are happening in the ‘festival zones’ in Market Place, Canal Basin and Ripon Spa Gardens. Saturday also sees four family theatre performances, each lasting 20 -55 minutes aimed at children.

There are also pop-up events in The Little Ripon Bookshop, at the Library and at the Curzon cinema.

Comedy Waiters

Other festival highlights include Red Ladder Theatre Company with their acclaimed production of The Damned United, the comic Holmes and Watson – The Farewell Tour and Illyria Theatre Company’s A Midsummer Nights Dream at Fountains Abbey on Sunday night.

The event is organised by a team of 30 volunteers from the Ripon City Festival Trust.

To see the full programme of events click here.

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Ripon residents are being given the opportunity to play a part in an innovative community project being created for the city’s first theatre festival.

At the Workhouse Museum on Allhallowgate between 11am-1.30pm today, would-be actors, scriptwriters, set designers and props handlers are invited to find out more.

The aim is to recruit people who would like to have a role in  Jubilee at the Workhouse — a living history project by Fell Foss Theatre Company, under the direction of Mark Cronfield.

Participants will develop scripts with the museum’s volunteer research group alongside local writers and specialist script writer Simon Kirk of Time will Tell theatre company, long-time collaborators with English Heritage.

The finished production will reflect on previous royal celebrations in Ripon, such as Queen Victoria’s Diamond Jubilee in 1897, which was marked a year later, when the clock tower at the junction of Palace Road, North Street and Princess Road, was officially opened in front of a huge crowd.

Performances will take place on the final afternoon of the festival (Sunday June 26) when a promenade of colourful characters, will  interact with the audience, as they make their way through the museum’s historic spaces.

The theatrical venture is being made possible through a collaboration between Ripon City Festival Trust and Ripon Museum Trust.

Festival co-director Katie Scott, said:

“This is our inaugural year and we are so pleased that we have been able to include this project in our plans.

“The festival aims to celebrate the unique city of Ripon through live performance and our ambition has always been to programme original and site-specific work alongside visiting companies. This is a creative and thought-provoking way to begin”.

Dr Laura Allan, community curator at Ripon Museum Trust, added:

“The historic spaces of the Workhouse Museum will be transformed into a stage with volunteers and the local community at the centre of the story. We are asking the local community to give it a go and get involved with this special jubilee performance”.

The festival runs from June 23 to 26, with a wide variety of performances from street theatre and puppetry to dance, storytelling and open-air Shakespeare

Tickets go on sale next month.