2024 Archives ⋆ Page 3 of 4 ⋆ Basingstoke Festival

Step into the world of Junk Jodie for a Junk-TASTIC fashion adventure the whole family will love!

Jodie has teamed up with Josh Dixon from Pumpkin Pantos to create a brand new festival experience bursting with colour, creativity and eco-friendly flair. Inspired by local young people and brought to life with the help of brilliant fashion designers, crafters and musicians from across the region, this is a celebration of style with a sustainable twist.

Your VIP pass grants you entry to the most fabulous music and fashion ball in town, where Jodie unveils her enchanting new fairytale Fashion-IFFICENT — a magical story filled with recycled, mythical creatures and Jodie’s much loved storytelling charm.

Throughout the day, Jodie’s delightful friends — Mary the Dot, the Litter Mermaid and Music with Mike — will be on hand to help you transform tired old clothes into something truly spectacular. Expect mending, making, music and mountains of imagination.

This is a hands on, joy packed, song filled eco adventure designed especially for kids and families who love to create, play and explore. Get ready to stitch, sing and sparkle your way through a festival experience like no other.

Saturday 27 June
Fashion Ball and Fashion-IFFICENT 12.15pm and 2.50pm
Upcycling with Mary the Dot, 11am to 1pm and 2pm to 4.30pm (drop-in session)
Festival Place Amphitheatre (Location 3)
Duration: Fashion Ball and Fashion-IFFICENT – 60 minutes

Out and About
Sunday 28 June
Fashion-IFFICENT, 11am and 1.30pm
Crafting, 11.30am to 12noon and 2pm to 3pm (drop-in session)
Chineham Park Splash Pad, Popley
Duration: Fashion-IFFICENT (30 minutes)

TAXI-13-©-Paul-Blakemore-@blikmo-scaled-e1779965025571-1200x681.jpg

This fabulous outdoor circus show takes place in, on and around an old-school London Taxi involving original live music, humour, a mechanically ingenious set, and extraordinary aerial performance.

Sometimes serious, but more often funny, Pirate Taxi tells the directors’ own tale of finding their way (via Circus) to Somerset – weaving in themes of journeys, companionship, and the annual migration of birds.

Pirates of the Carabina invite you to join the ride, as the Taxi embarks on yet another adventure!

Duration: 45 minutes

Saturday 27 June – Location 1: ///boats.fans.action

Sunday 28 June – Location: Beggarwood Park: ///snuggled.comical.vast

The Magical Toy Hospital is opening a brand new wing at Festival Place, Basingstoke!

Appointments will soon be available for teddies, dolls and even the occasional dinosaur. Please be advised: every patient must be accompanied by at least one careful owner.

Scratch Built Productions, in collaboration with Forest Forge Theatre Company, invites you into a fun, interactive, and immersive experience where they will transform an empty shop unit into a hospital. Using puppetry (and of course 20 years at magical medical school) they will bring your toys to life right before your eyes.

On Sundays, the magical medical team will be joined by Oakley Stitchers and the Repair Cafe should your favourite friend require some specialist care and additional TLC.

Duration: 45 minutes

Location 4
The Creative Emporium, Festival Place,
Upper Level (Opposite Starbucks)

The Light Lab is a vibrant exhibition celebrating the creativity of children and families from The Safe. This immersive space brings together their ideas, experiments, and artworks, all brought to life through light, art, and technology.

Alongside the exhibition, the Light Lab Play Space invites children, adults, and families to explore, make and experiment together. Through tinkering with light, visitors can engage with art, science, and technology using hands-on activities such as light drawing, light boxes, animation, and digital pattern-making tools.

Created by Emma Callow, The Light Lab is a space to tinker, experiment, and explore. It is where curiosity sparks creativity!

Developed with funding from Basingstoke and Deane’s Creative Incubator Fund

Location: Festival Place, Art House Gallery (Upper level, next to the Apple Store)

Fashion has levelled up and you’re invited!

Step into a high‑energy VR design studio with Holly New, where teenagers create bold, futuristic looks for their own digital avatars. In this fast‑paced workshop, young designers experiment with colour, texture, and form in ways the real world can’t match, no needles, no sowing machines, just pure imagination. After the Festival, every creation will be transformed into a show‑stopping virtual fashion show, bringing designs to life on a dynamic online catwalk. It’s creative. It’s cutting‑edge. Its fashion reimagined for the metaverse.

Perfect for you people who love style, gaming, tech, or trying something completely new.

10.30 to 11am – pre-booked workshop
11am to 1pm – drop-in session
1.30 to 2pm – pre-booked workshop
2pm to 4pm – drop-in session

We hope to accommodate as many people as possible during the drop-in sessions however places are limited to 10 people at a time and therefore a space is not guaranteed. Secure your place on a pre-booked workshop here.

Location: Festival Place, Art House Gallery (Upper level, next to the Apple Store)

Hydropunk is a multi-sensory interactive installation.

Taps, valves, pipes, pumps, sprays, and leaks come together to form a chaotic, yet playful water machine full of games and puzzles, all fed by a central reservoir. But there’s a twist: Hydropunk is also a striking environmental metaphor. With only 1000 litres of water to work with, once it’s gone, it’s gone! To keep the fun flowing, participants must work together to conserve and recycle water, engaging in a constant challenge against waste and leakage.

Can you help save 1,000 litres?

Artizani created Hydropunk in collaboration with Tenderfoot Theatre.

Without Walls logo 2025

Highly_Sprung_Grow_090725_0496_HR_Credit_Andrew_Moore-scaled-e1779277975168-1200x678.jpg

Grow is an interactive, nature-inspired theatre adventure combining dance, sound and storytelling. It explores skies, oceans and jungles while inspiring care for our planet. With tactile, sustainable props, Highly Sprung’s Grow nurtures curiosity, creativity and a lifelong connection to the natural world.

Duration: 40 minutes

Location 2: ///land.lush.issued

Rummage through the rubble with Bin Rat and friends from Squeaky Clean Street Cleaners to discover where all the junk goes! Scrape scraps off the streets and find out what literally happens to litter in this fun, feral, family show that explores our relationship to waste and where it goes, and asks the question: is tidiness really the answer?

With Last Baguette’s zany style, absurd humour and lots of disco dancing, this show asks you to think before you throw – where is away?

The Last Baguette makes entertaining, accessible and eccentric work for family audiences and uses live music, physical comedy, puppetry, visual storytelling and silliness to talk about important issues of our times.

Duration: 50 minutes

Saturday – Location 3: ///join.bulb.waving

Sunday – Penwood: ///amazed.discussed.sending

Bamboo

Watch as NoFit State’s world-class artists build towering sculptures which morph, transform and become an improbable, delicate circus playground that seems to defy the laws of physics. Watch this meaningful, joyful performance with live music, comedy and amazing feats of strength and agility. Celebrate what’s possible when humans and the natural world trust each other and work in harmony. Brought to you from the team behind Sabotage which came to Basingstoke Festival in 2025.

Duration: 45 minutes

Without Walls logo 2025

The Magical Toy Hospital is opening a brand new wing at Festival Place, Basingstoke!

Appointments will soon be available for teddies, dolls and even the occasional dinosaur. Please be advised: every patient must be accompanied by at least one careful owner.

On Sundays, the magical medical team will be joined by Oakley Stitchers and the Repair Cafe should your favourite friend require some specialist care and additional TLC.

Duration: 45 minutes

Location 4
The Creative Emporium, Festival Place,
Upper Level (Opposite Starbucks)

Fashion-IFFICENT

Pirate Taxi

The Magical Toy Hospital (Weekend two)

Take Part Workshops: The Light Lab – Exhibition and Play Space

Discover and Explore: Studio of New

Hydropunk

Grow

Bin Rat!!!

Bamboo

The Magical Toy Hospital (Weekend three)