Forge Festival 2023

The Knotted Project’s Forge Festival 2023 took place on the 29th and 30th April 2023 at Windermere Jetty Museum. This year’s festival was hugely ambitious and unique with pop-up performances from performance companies, early career artists and professional companies taking place every half hour across the weekend in outdoor and unusual spaces across the museum. The festival was a huge success, clearly demonstrating the talent and creative ambition that exists within the Lakes and Cumbria, with inspiring artists, bold performances, and busy audiences.

Young people used the theme ‘Breaking Through’ to inspire their performance pieces which were co-created with exceptional professional artists from across Cumbria. They demonstrated powerfully how important these moments are in their lives through a rich mix of art forms including live music, spoken word, physical theatre, film and dance.

Bringing established professional companies, early career artists and young creatives together for the festival allowed young people to visualise the next step of their artistic journey and brought a real buzz and an incredibly positive, joyous energy to Windermere Jetty Museum as they took over their spaces in creative ways for the weekend.

With thanks to Arts Council England for supporting this project through public funding from The National Lottery, and Lakeland Arts for supporting this work and allowing young people to take over Windermere Jetty Museum for the weekend.

“We couldn’t be more proud of everyone involved this year. Watch this space… we are just getting started!” said Natalie and Simon, Knotted Project’s directors. And GPLD are proud to work with them and support this progressive festival and its ongoing journey.