A brand new, free festival is making its way to Stoke this weekend and we have picked out the top 6 things that we are looking forward to most.
Before we get to all the juicy stuff, what is the festival all about?
‘Better World Festival’, a family-friendly affair, aims to celebrate what makes our planet great. The weekend-long festival plans to address the issues we currently face, and how we can overcome them.
The festival will be working alongside a whole host of local charities, community groups, pop-ups, activists, guest speakers and anyone who cares about making a positive change. Each person, organisation and group will be coming forward with their views on how we can better this world, and why we should be celebrating its existence.
Sounds exciting, right? Let’s take a look at what here at Smithfield we are looking forward to most!
The Boat Band
Bringing fun vibes, The Boat Band are no strangers to a gig. As regular performers at the world famous Glastonbury Festival, this band can play anything! Creole, Caribbean, Gospel, Cajun, Irish, Zydeco and Blues – not much slips through their net. As long as it touches the heart and moves the feet, it’s in their repertoire.
Mindset and Movement: Shifting Your Mindset While Shifting Your Body
Taking place at Albion Square, this event will be hosted by Kirsty Jade, a yoga teacher with a passion for holistic wellbeing. Offering all things self love, mindful movement, holistic habits and mindset work, Kirsty’s venture has been inspired by her own story, and she now hopes to help you with yours. As a morning session, this is a great way to start your day, and get you in the best place you can be for the weekend.
The Interactive Art Wall
TOTEM Stoke are also hosting a mixed-arts space for Better World Festival at a new outdoor location in Hanley. Alongside live music is the Interactive Art Wall by D.South, which will be a collaborative piece of art with live illustrators. You can join in or just sit back and watch the artists work throughout the night!
Dust Rising: Every Other Seat
Every Other Seat is a pop-up exhibition of seats. Not any old seats, though. This exhibition involves numerous artists who have been commissioned to adopt and design their own seat, with the sole intention of trying to create a response to the impact of the pandemic on the arts industry.
Hungry for Change: What Foods are Good For Us and Our Planet
Hosted by Stoke’s very own Cris Cohen from Feasted, this is one guest speaker we are not missing out on. Cris stumbled across a food program on BBC Radio 4 in 2019 titled ‘How to start a food revolution’ and every seed of information, point raised and issue addressed resonated with him. The things that were being said aligned with how Cris felt about Stoke on Trent and what could be achieved here. In this talk, Cris aims to enlighten us all on how we can be nicer to our planet while being nicer to ourselves, through the food we all love and know.
The Artisan Market
Located at yours truly, Smithfield, The Artisan Market is packed full of goodies and treats (and is possibly the best thing that’s going on all weekend)! Food, jewellery, art, gifts and more, all from local and neighbouring artisan traders. What’s not to love? Running between 10am and 5pm from Friday through till Sunday, we would love to see you all at Smithfield. And of course, all our traders’ products are sustainable, ethically sourced and homemade.
So there you have it!
That’s what we are looking forward to most at the Better World Festival- let us know what you are looking forward to most by tweeting us at @SmithfieldST1 and make sure to tag us in any posts visiting the Artisan Market.
We’ll see you there!