Ripon Theatre Festival: How a small city becomes a big theatre for families

It is only the second annual event but it already feels like an established event in one of the country’s smallest and most cherished cities.

With multiple unusual pop-up performance locations, city streets and open spaces adding to the list of more traditional venues, there are many activities at the event

And as the festival organisers prepare for more than 50 events over five days, community performers are rehearsing to perform alongside the professional line-up of more than 20 visiting theatre companies and street acts.

Larger events such as the fast-paced Robin Hood for families at Fountains Abbey and the charming Sense and Sensibility at The Old Deanery are matched by mini events which enable local cafés and shops to get involved.

The Market Place, Minster Gardens and Ripon Spa Gardens will be transformed into Festival Zones for the weekend with street theatre, music, mime, circus and dance filling the bill.

From the ancient Crypt in Ripon Cathedral to the back of The Little Ripon Bookshop, this year’s Ripon Theatre Festival will see puppets, stories and drama popping up across the city.

Gav Cross, master storyteller, will be thrilling young audiences in three different venues, miniature puppet shows will be found in venues as varied as the tiny and historic cabmans’ shelter, The GreenHouse shop and Ripon Cathedral.

There will be hourly entertainment in the bookshop, brunch events at The Unicorn Hotel and Claro Lounge and a short series of spoken word, storytelling and drama in the atmospheric crypt of the Curzon Cinema.

Pop-up events are either free or Pay What You Can and form just one series within the full festival programme which includes ticketed theatre performances, many at the city’s studio theatre, Ripon Arts Hub.

With the final weekend of street theatre, walkabout acts, open-air theatre, music, dance and hands-on activities, organisers promise colour, drama and fun.

On Friday from 7.15pm there will be a chance to “explore the darker side of Ripon’s history from the macabre to the mysterious” with a ghost walk.

A spokesman for the festival said: “Wow – our first Ripon Theatre Festival in 2022 went down so well that we are going to do it all over again.

"Thank you so much to everyone who has encouraged us and supported this year, helping to make it even bigger and brighter.

"The 2023 festival not only sees two full days of free family events in and around the city centre, but more ticketed theatre shows in a wonderful variety of venues, both indoors and open-air. There really is something for everyone.”