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As the curtain rises on Basingstoke Festival 2025 for the second weekend, our town will come alive with opportunity. As part of the Basingstoke Festival 2025, a new initiative – the Creative Work Experience Project – is connecting students from six local schools with arts organisations to co-create performances and exhibitions. It’s more than a celebration of creativity; it’s a platform into the future.

This initiative is made possible thanks to funding from Hampshire County Council and The Careers and Enterprise Company, with Hampshire Careers Hub partnering with Basingstoke and Deane Borough Council and Basingstoke Festival. This project blends hands-on experience with workplace insight. Over two weeks, young people take part in workshops, rehearsals, placements, and performances – gaining a front-row seat to what it means to work in the creative sector.

Why does it matter?

Because the creative industries are one of the UK’s fastest-growing economic sectors, contributing over £124 billion in 2023 and employing 2.4 million people. Yet, there’s a growing demand for fresh, diverse talent and a clear need to prepare young people for creative careers that are often misunderstood or overlooked.

The Creative Work Experience Project helps address this. Through participation, students develop key employability skills identified by The Careers and Enterprise Company:

  • Communication: Whether performing, presenting ideas, or writing event reviews, young people sharpen how they express themselves.
  • Teamwork: Creative projects demand collaboration from stage design to ensemble acting.
  • Problem Solving: Live events rarely go perfectly. Adapting and thinking on your feet is part of the learning.
  • Self-Management: Rehearsals and deadlines call for independence and time discipline.
  • Creativity: A key employability skill, it fuels innovation and flexible thinking with skills being developed every time students imagine, design, or perform something new.

Crucially, this work aligns with the Gatsby Benchmarks, which are widely recognised as a framework for delivering high-quality careers education. Students connect with employers, gain authentic workplace experience, and learn how school subjects, especially the arts, translate into future career paths.

In addition to everything they gain from the experience, participants also work towards the Bronze Arts Award, a nationally recognised qualification that celebrates commitment to arts learning and showcases transferable skills on CVs and personal statements.

“I had a really great time on Saturday helping.  It built up my confidence in talking to strangers and I practised my customer service skills.  It was good fun.  My favourite bit was listening to the Philharmonia performance again.” Participating student from Dove House Academy.

Illustration by the students of Dove House Academy

 

These kinds of partnerships put Basingstoke on the map, not just as a place that hosts culture, but as one that creates it. They give young people a reason to imagine their future here, where creativity is both celebrated and employable.

As the second weekend of the festival unfolds with captivating performances, look beyond the applause. You’ll be witnessing the next generation of creative professionals in action and the kind of local innovation that keeps our town thriving.

Rachel Parker
Employment and Skills Officer


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Hospital Radio Basingstoke (HRB) is Basingstoke’s hospital health and wellbeing community radio station covering this year’s Basingstoke Festival.  The station broadcasts around Basingstoke and the local area on DAB. Listen on your DAB+ radio, online via the HRB website or Tune In App, via your smart speaker. They are also of course around the hospital on bedside radios.

Tune in to HRB for all the news of what’s happening at this year’s Basingstoke Festival and listen out for local artists who will be interviewed on the station too!

HRB will be attending many of this years events. Watch out for them at the Basingstoke Festival Opening Parade on Friday 20 June from 5.30pm and catch the following Festival coverage:

Festival coverage:

Sunday 8 to Friday 20 June  – Interviews with some of the performers during our “Mix” shows

Sunday 15 June – Basingstoke Festival Preview during Neil Ogden’s Sound of Sunday

Thursday 19 June at 4pm – Basingstoke Festival Preview with Neil Ogden

Friday 20 June at 6pm – Basingstoke Festival Opening Weekend Preview with Neil Ogden

Sunday 21 June – Meet the HRB team at some of the performances today

Friday 27 June at 5pm – Basingstoke Festival opening weekend highlights and  2nd Weekend Preview

Saturday 28 June – Meet the HRB team at some of the performances today

Friday 4 July at 5pm – Basingstoke Festival 2nd weekend highlights and 3rd Weekend Preview

Saturday 12 July at 5pm – Basingstoke Festival 2025 Highlights


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Dance and Movement Workshops with Autin Dance Theatre

Want to perform at Basingstoke Festival?

Join over 100 performers in Autin Dance Theatre’s exciting new production, Up in the Sky!

No dance experience? No problem! Head along to the open creative workshop with Autin Dance Theatre to learn the choreography and be part of something spectacular.

Wednesday 18 June 2025
7pm to 8.30pm
Proteus Creation Space, Basingstoke, Council Road, Basingstoke RG21 3DH

Everyone is welcome of any age, whether you are 8 or 80. This is your chance to shine!

As part of the Basingstoke Festival Parade, participants will dance through the streets before coming together for a powerful group performance under Autin Dance Theatre’s Giant Aerial Rig, just before the company’s main show ‘Up in the Sky’.

Workshop Highlights:

  • Accessible and inclusive mass movement techniques
  • Body percussion and clapping rhythms
  • Object manipulation with silk scarves
  • Upper-body gestures symbolising unity and support
  • Themes of migration, resilience, hope, and community

This is an unmissable opportunity for people to participated in a community event, move together, celebrate diversity, and bring energy to the festival!

The performance will take place as part of the opening evening of the Basingstoke Festival on Friday 20 June at the Amphitheatre at Festival Place in Basingstoke. Autin Dance festival are once again premiering their work in Basingstoke, previously bringing Parade the Giant wheel and Eko in Out of the Deep Blue (pictured below)

Parade: The Giant Wheel
Parade: The Giant Wheel
Eko Autin Dance Theatre
Out of the Deep Blue

 

About Autin Dance Theatre
Autin Dance Theatre is an independent arts organisation established in Birmingham in 2013. Under the helm of Director/Choreographer Johnny Autin, the Company produces innovative and aspirational artistic performances and provides extensive learning and participation programmes in the community. They work with exceptional local and national dance artists to deliver work across the UK and beyond.

All workshop leaders hold clear enhanced DBS checked and public liability insurances. Their practitioners are fully trained and experienced in delivering workshops suitable for people of all ages and abilities.

Johnny Autin (Artistic Director)
Johnny is an established International Dance Artist and award-winning Choreographer based in Birmingham (UK). Originally from France, he has collaborated with creatives and companies throughout Europe, as well as touring work worldwide. As a dance maker, he is regularly commissioned by organisations and universities to create new work with professionals and vocational students, and he has over 20 years of experience as a workshop leader and educator. He is the founder and Creative Director of Autin Dance Theatre (est. 2013).

More recently, he developed and created the touring sensation ‘Out of the Deep Blue’ featuring 13-foot Sea Giant Puppet Eko and also ‘Parade – The Giant Wheel’.  Johnny is a dedicated trustee on the board of Dancefest (Worcester), and Associate Artist at Midlands Arts Centre. He believes in dance as an agent for positive social change. His choreographic process is often influenced by socio-political statements and engaged towards positive, empowering and inspiring artistic experiences to audiences.

Natasha Boyes (Education Coordinator)
Natasha is a UK-based circus and dance artist with a strong foundation in Rhythmic Gymnastics. Competing at an elite level for 10 years, she also performed nationally and internationally.

She trained in Contemporary Circus and Physical Theatre at Circomedia, specialising in aerial straps, solo and duo acrobatics, and dance. Since graduating, Natasha has primarily worked in outdoor arts, collaborating with companies such as Citrus Arts (2023), Full Tilt Aerial (2022), Bassline Circus (2022), and Above and Beyond (2022). Currently, Natasha is the Education Coordinator at Autin Dance Theatre, where she leads and develops educational outreach projects. Passionate about inclusivity, she strives to create environments where all participants feel valued and supported—whether in teaching, performance, or creative projects. Alongside her artistic work, she is also a freelance social media manager and press officer for extreme sports teams.

More information about the company can be found on the website www.autindt.co.uk or on social media pages @AutinDT.


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We’re taking the festival ‘Out and About’ on the road again. Expect pop-up performances and magical moments not just in the town centre, but tucked away in parks, villages, and unexpected places across the borough. Keep your curiosity switched on. 

Out and About performances will take place on the Festival Sundays:

Sunday 22 June
Sunday 29 June
Sunday 6 July 

Festival out and about logo

Farm Yard Circus is coming to Beggarwood Park
Sunday 22 June at 11am and 2pm
Click here for Farm Yard Circus programme information

Caspian’s Storm is coming to Chineham Park Splash Pad, Popley
Sunday 22 June at 11am, 1pm and 3pm
Click here for Caspian’s Storm programme information

Twelve Hours is coming to Kempshott, The Walled Garden
Sunday 22 June at 2pm and 4.30pm
Click here for Twelve Hours programme and ticket booking information

The Whale is coming to Oakridge Hall for All
Sunday 29 June from 11am to 1pm and 2pm to 4pm
Click here for The Whale programme information

Now I am become d/deaf is coming to Bishop’s Green ,Outside Bishop’s Green Village Hall
Saturday 29 June at 11am and 1pm
Click here for Now I am become d/deaf programme information

The Urban Picnic is coming to Penwood, Outside Woodlands Stores 
Sunday 29 June at 12noon and 2pm
Click here for The Urban Picnic programme information

Noisy Noise Noise is coming to Tadley Library
Sunday 6 July between 11am to 1pm and 2pm to 4pm
Click here for Noisy Noise Noise programme information

DIG! is coming to Tadley Library
Sunday 6 July at 10.30am and 1.30pm
Click here for DIG! programme information

Bee-ology is coming to Russell Howard Park
Sunday 6 July at 12pm and 2pm
Click here for Bee-ology programme information

The Out and About performances are part of the full Basingstoke Festival outdoor arts programme.

Click the link below to view full the programme and plan your Festival weekends:
Basingstoke Festival outdoor arts programme.


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