Revamped arts fest to return this weekend with a focus on family fun

Warrington Arts Festival returns this weekend for a town centre takeover with a host of free and family-friendly attractions.

The annual event will once again be focusing on largescale celebrations that bring the community together with the open-air Family Garden Party making a comeback by popular demand.

Queens Gardens will be transformed into a performance space for live music, theatre, hands-on activities and a series of pop-up shows on Saturday and Sunday, 19 and 20 July, between 12pm and 5pm.

Fresh from their appearance at Glastonbury, highlights at this weekend of garden-themed fun include astonishing acrobatics from Farm Yard Circus who will be juggling everything from hay bales to an old tractor tyre.

Children can also meet colourful characters such as the Meadow Sprites, who will be flying and flitting about as they bring tales of their woodland habitat, and The Seedkeepers who will be weaving stories from all over the world about the many women who protect the seeds and grains of their homeland.

Elsewhere, Do What Ya Mama Told Yah, a feast of a show will be fusing family, food history and slapstick performance in a mum and daughter collaboration while the thought-provoking Now I Am Become d/Deaf (Destroyer of Words) invites families to immerse themselves in a world where the loudest actions are lost in translation and the quietest looks can be deafening.

With so much free family entertainment in one place, here is a round-up of the main attractions:

Circus Fun with Mr Orange, 19 and 20 July, 12pm, 1.30pm, 3pm and 4.30pm – bubble show on Saturday and juggler workshops on Sunday.

Our World with Rachel Priest, 19 and 20 July, 12pm to 5pm – Rachel is building a giant space rocket but she needs your help. Come and decorate the rocket with something you love about where you live!

Pop-up Planting Shed, 19 and 20 July, 12pm to 5pm – eco fun for little ones, plant your own sunflower seedling with the gardeners!

Interwoven with Lucianne Canavan, 19 and 20 July, 12pm to 5pm – the lively sessions will explore textured weaving with fabric scraps and waste yarn to celebrate Warrington’s industrial heritage.

The Seedkeepers, 19 and 20 July, 12pm, 1.45pm and 3.45pm

Farmyard Circus, 19 and 20 July, 12.15pm and 3.15pm

Meadow Sprites, 19 and 20 July, 12.45pm, 2.30pm and 4.30pm

Family Portrait Painting Workshop, 19 and 20 July, 1pm to 5pm – make meaningful portraits of your loved ones through colour, connection, and creative play. Or simply sit back and enjoy a quick live portrait drawn by artist WingYu Yeung to take home as a keepsake!

Now I Become d/Deaf (Destroyer of Words), 19 July (Saturday only), 1.15pm and 4.15pm

Do What Yah Mama Told Yah!, 20 July (Sunday only), 1.15pm and 4.15pm

Other events to kickstart Warrington Arts Festival 2025 include a celebration of music, dance and big energy at Time Square on Friday night, 18 July – culminating in a nostalgic throwback to iconic nightclub, Mr Smiths.

It starts at 7pm with The Family Catwalk Extravaganza when four performers will go head-to-head in a dance, fashion and lip sync competition. This lively event by Ghetto Fabulous will be as immersive as it is interactive where the audience decides the winner.

Then memories, music and movement will merge for From Mr Smiths, With Love at 8pm. Time Square will be transformed into one giant, open-air dancefloor when the nightclub, which burnt down in 2015, will be remembered through the stories of the people who danced there and a pounding 80s and 90s soundtrack.

Warrington dance artist Stacey Atkinson has teamed up with dance-theatre specialists Night People with support from a cohort of 50 dancers for this celebration of togetherness found under flashing lights and on sticky dancefloors. Also expect some special guests, including The Hitman and Her legend, Wiggy.

Then on Sunday, 20 July, one of the showstoppers of Warrington Arts Festival will open at Parr Hall – Grandma’s House.

This unique and bespoke commission by award-winning Chapelford artist Marie Jones will explore home, memory and family bonds through the creation of a life-sized knitted replica of her grandma’s home.

The 7m-tall installation symbolises not only an act of devotion and labour but a material reflection of the quiet spectacle of domestic life. It follows a year of intense planning, a big community effort with 113 volunteers and six months of painstaking work.

Finally, the festival will also be welcoming a globally respected creative director and producer who was part of the celebrations for the London 2012 Olympic Opening Ceremony and the Queen’s Platinum Jubilee Pageant.

British-Caribbean choreographer Jeanefer-Jean Charles MBE will grace Golden Square’s Old Market Place stage on Sunday to present Patois, a globe-trotting story of culture, lost languages, longing and belonging through the language of dance.

Blending traditional Caribbean choreography, contemporary dance and an original Caribbean-folk score, there will be two performances at 1pm and 3.30pm.

Warrington Arts Festival was relaunched in 2024 – thanks to a game changing funding boost from Arts Council England, Warrington Borough Council and Warrington BID,

Taking place between 18 and 26 July, the annual event’s goal is to celebrate Warrington through arts, culture, people and place.

For more information and the full line-up for Warrington Arts Festival, visit warringtonartsfestival.org