Gloucestershire-based charity, Cheltenham Festivals, has a core mission to bring joy, spark curiosity, connect communities and inspire change — and with its final festival of the year fast-approaching, SoGlos is taking a deep dive into all the ways the charity is inspiring the next generation of musical, scientific and literary talent.
Talent development is at the heart of Cheltenham Festivals' four festivals and year-round outreach programmes, with diverse opportunities for emerging and early-career artists, writers and communicators across its annual Jazz, Music, Science and Literature Festivals.
From discovering the most exciting new voices in science through programmes like FameLab — the largest science communication competition in the world which has put over 40,000 scientists and engineers on a global stage — to the popular ...around town programme, which gives local musicians, theatre makers, authors, poets and creatives an opportunity to showcase their talents everywhere from the Jazz Festival's iconic Free Stage to the Literature Festival's infamous Lit Crawl, Cheltenham Festivals nurtures fresh talent across all of its events.
So far this year, over 100 musical artists have taken part in Cheltenham Jazz and Music Festivals — with more creative opportunities to come as Cheltenham Literature Festival's free ...around town programme, including the Lit Crawl, is set to make a rousing return in 2024.
The VOICEBOX stage is fast becoming the go-to venue for young adults, providing a platform for the issues that really matter to them, from mental health and sexual wellbeing to sustainability and social justice, with lots of opportunities to get involved in workshops, discussions and even open mics.
Cheltenham Festivals also offers a comprehensive programme for school children at all four festivals, as well as having a passionate learning and participation team which works with over 35,000 schools, young people and communities all year round.
Each year, Cheltenham Jazz and Music Festivals give youngsters the chance to experience everything from classical music recitals where they can get hands-on with instruments, to jazz concerts hosted by rising stars like Lucy-Anne Daniels — with dedicated relaxed concerts for schools making these events accessible for those with Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND), too.
At Cheltenham Science Festival in June, children from local schools got to show off their data interrogation skills as part of DataFace, with an exhibition of creatively presented findings on a variety of data from the price of biscuits to endangered animals, which they created in their classrooms.
Cheltenham Festivals' Musicate programme also relaunched in July — which means that from the new school year in September, teachers in primary schools and SEND settings can spend a day developing skills and building confidence in delivering an engaging music curriculum hosted by experts in music education, reflecting new thinking and approaches to teaching music.
For early-career musicians — or Musicats — they'll be able to access a training programme in music workshop development, as well as the opportunity to participate in things like concerts for schools at Cheltenham Jazz and Music Festivals.
While for the upcoming Cheltenham Literature Festival, its flagship Learning and Participation scheme is Reading Teachers = Reading Pupils, which encourages teachers and their pupils to read for pleasure to enhance wellbeing, learning and educational engagement.
The Literature Festival has a variety of RT=RP Live events on the programme, where children can interact with the authors of the books that have inspired them this year.
Its extensive family and schools programme provides countless opportunities to inspire young minds, with the chance to hear from and meet influential children's and YA authors like Dame Jacqueline Wilson, Ben Miller, Cornelia Funke, Cressida Cowell and Greg Jenner.
New for 2024, the VOICEBOX ACADEMY programme is also providing showcase opportunities for two writing projects — Words That Burn in partnership with Amnesty International and T.S. Eliot Prize-winning poet, Joelle Taylor; and The Scribbled Self, a writing for wellbeing project designed by and for young people.
To view the full programme for Cheltenham Literature Festival, visit cheltenhamfestivals.org/whats-on.
To find out more about learning and participation at Cheltenham Festivals, or to support its important work, visit cheltenhamfestivals.org/our-projects.
