THE first ever Youth Arts Festival for region, which is open to anyone aged 13 – 18 living in County Durham, is due to take place in Barnard Castle on July 12 and 13 this year.

The festival will be held on the combined sites of Teesdale School, Teesdale Leisure Centre and The TCR Hub – a £5 million development providing state-of-art facilities for young people.

Naming the festival YOUfest was the original idea of 14 year-old Lorna Armstrong, a talented pupil from Staindrop School, who has also designed the image for the festival publicity. (see first image) The pilot project will introduce youngsters to a wide variety of different arts activities over the space of a weekend and also include artists from BRASS, the Durham International Festival, as well as a myriad of other activities specially organised for the age-group.

Project manager Jill Cole says: “The weekend is going to be actionpacked and will have a real festival feel. There will be professionally run workshops throughout the weekend and the chance to try all sorts of great activities including DJing, street dance, carnival making, drumming, graffiti, street music, drama, craft – and much, much more!”

There are also free professional theatre shows to see and the chance to try out activities available at The Hub. Supervised overnight camping is on offer for those wanting to stay for the full weekend, a youth band gig on the Saturday night – and food for free!

Young people can apply as individuals or as a group and booking forms will be available to download from the TCR website (www.tcrhub.co.uk) as well as through schools and youth groups.

The cost for attending the festival is £10 for a one-day pass, £5 just for the Saturday night gig and £25 for a full weekend pass, giving access to all activities and overnight camping.

FOLLOWING a sell-out tour of the UK, Hebburn star Chris Ramsey comes to Barnard Castle for one night only.

Ramsey, who played lead Jack Pearson in the hit BBC2 sitcom, will head to the intimate Parish Hall on Thursday, August 14, for a performance of his latest show, The Most Dangerous Man On Saturday Morning Television.

The event, organised by Funny Way To Be Comedy Club, comes just two days before Ramsey takes the show to the Edinburgh Festival Fringe for a limited, eight-night run.

  • Tickets may still be available via funnywaytobe.com