An All Year round Offer.
Eventually becoming a year-round cultural offer mobilising the town’s creative Communities and embracing events both new and established, Scarborough Fair Is structured around four pillars:
Winter Lights - late autumn 2023, 2024 and 2025
Co-created with the town’s communities over the autumn months and culminating in events
running throughout December. This will be mostly free to access with some ticketed events and installations taking place in publicly accessible buildings such as the Spa, vacant shop units and pop-up spaces.
International Street Arts Festival - May 2024, 2025 and 2026
A three-day free festival featuring a parade and with outdoor events - created with local arts organisations and featuring visiting performers - over the May holiday weekend.
The Affordable Art Trail - June to August 2024, 2025 and 2026
A three-month free to access showcase of work by Scarborough-based artists hosted in a range of venues.
Music and Action Sports Festival - September 2024, 2025 and 2026
A three-day sports competition and music festival, hosted at the Open Air Theatre, as a ticketed event in September to be developed with the borough council’s delivery partner Live Nation and relevant sports events companies.
The £1.2m from the Town Centres Fund provides the underpinning for these key programme strands although some additional fundraising will be required.
The Scarborough Fair will be the banner under which a wide ranging and inclusive cultural programme will sit. It will play a central role in the town’s regeneration, progress the place-making agenda and animate our communities.
Local stories, people, venues, spaces and landscapes will be the inspiration for activity with a national appeal and that increases local pride, enhances aspirations and deepens understanding.
The Scarborough Fair will be the way that we tell our story in a more dynamic and cohesive way – linking the heritage, geography, culture and people of our town in a way that helps us articulate our story much better – the story of Scarborough in the future, not the past.
