Winscombe festival of Arts and Nature

Took place on the 19th July 2025 12.30-18.00 Winscombe Community Centre and Green

This year the festival takes place on Sunday the 12th of July 2026

Last Years line up:

Earlier in the year we created a 50 foot Mural on The Strawberry Line alongside a public consultation, and there were community painting days to get involved with in the run up to the festival.

On the day there were environmental arts and crafts to have a go at, like seasonal wreath and crown making, Circus skills to try, and the beekeeping society brought a hive down and to get families learning about sustainability and local worldlife.

There was a parade of giant masks for families to join, performances from local artists all topped off by a village feast, served from our community kitchen at Winscombe Community Centre, serving almost 300 free curries to the hungry punters.

For 2026 we will invite local professional theatre companies, local musical talent and local food businesses to come together to celebrate the talents of the region and make Winscombe a destination for arts, culture and community spirit.

The Consortium

As part of our dedication to community building locally, we are setting up a consortium of 4 local Theatre and Arts organisations.

Funding is becoming more scarce, fewer people are coming to watch shows in traditional theatre settings and the combination of the cost of living crisis, the Covid Pandemic and Brexit has brought our sector to its knees. Alongside this, the government is stripping the Arts out of our schools, despite the fact that the creative industries in this country are a thing of national pride. In 2022, the creative industries generated an estimated £126 billion in gross value added to the UK economy and employed 2.4 million people.

The consortium will work together to find our way through this tricky time.

We will be working with 3 other amazing local companies to try and problem solve together ways of becoming more resilient, by pooling resources, knowledge and networks to find our way through collectively. The benefit of this work will ripple out to the other companies we all work with as freelancers, finding ways to be stronger together.

The Consortium members joining us are:

Front Room Theatre is an award-winning venue and producing company based in Weston-super-Mare. We are passionate about using the arts as a powerful tool for social change. Our mission is to make high-quality theatre and creative opportunities accessible to everyone, regardless of their background or income.

We believe that cultural participation goes far beyond entertainment, it builds confidence, fosters a sense of belonging, and creates pathways to new opportunities.

Alongside presenting high-quality touring theatre in Weston, we also offer a range of community-focused programmes. These include skills workshops, performance groups, mentorship for local artists, and arts outreach for community groups and schools. We also provide professional commissions and artist residencies for creatives in the local area.

In addition to hosting other artists, we produce our own original work, which we tour across the South West and beyond; reaching both established venues and underserved community spaces with limited access to theatre.

Our impact has been nationally recognised: we are proud winners of The Small Awards’ "Best Social Enterprise Business" in the Mission Possible category, and finalists in the Green Growth Awards for our commitment to sustainable practices and eco-conscious touring.

Roustabout is a company dedicated to creating epic theatre for family audiences. We explore the biggest of questions in the silliest of ways, using play as a way to engage with some of the more complex & serious realities of the world we live in.

Roustabout Theatre is an award-winning team of theatre makers based in North Somerset and Bristol, born out of ten years of collaboration, fun and nonsense. We seek out extraordinary tales, both true and imagined, and tell them with clarity, simplicity, humour and a wild imagination. Performed in theatres, schools, libraries & community venues, our work is for audiences of all ages, for anyone who loves play, and for anyone who delights in the communal act of sharing a story.

Tidal Tales Collective

Tidal Tales Collective CIC (TTC) is a theatre company based in the South West of England. 

They use design, music & theatre to make striking folk-theatre that finds cultural connections through world stories and songs. Through a blend of modern and traditional forms, TTC explore the commonality of all people, our interwoven history & our reliance on the health of the planet.

TTC brings together 30 years plus of experience in the Arts to create new female led theatre. Their backgrounds are hugely diverse & distinguished, including work with indigenous communities in Australia & environmental activist groups to high budget Hollywood films for Warner Bros, Disney/Marvel and Universal and with world renowned organisations such as The Royal Shakespeare Company, Sky TV, The National Theatre, The Young Vic, The Barbican, & many more. They bring this huge bank of varied experience together to create excellent theatre and make use of these skills and experience to support & strengthen communities and the environment.

They are passionate about bringing work to audiences who don't get to access arts and culture and have partnered with several key local organisations including Heart of BS13, Trinity Arts, Front Room Weston and Taunton Brewhouse to ensure their work reaches and connects to their target communities. 

In our work with the consortium we will be working with Joanna Ridout Facilitator & consultant

Joanna is an organisational development consultant, facilitator, trainer and university lecturer with over 35 years’ experience in the independent arts, social enterprise, public and charitable sectors. She works alongside organisations as a critical friend, enabling them to articulate their purpose and develop effect strategic plans. She designs, delivers and facilitates training events, awaydays and learning programmes with strategic organisations, cultural SMEs and charities.

She was employed in senior management by arts venues and touring companies and, freelance since 2003, also specialises in planning for strategic, public and small to medium scale independent arts and non-profit organisations. She has worked with over a hundred different public, arts and cultural organisations in a variety of settings. She was Lecturer for the MA in Cultural and Arts Management at the University of Winchester for five years to 2021.

Clients include Arts Council, England, Department for Culture, Media and Sport, UK Trade & Investment, Creative and Cultural Skills, Creative People & Places, Arts Council Catalyst consortia, Hampshire Cultural Trust, Harlow Art Trust, Farnham Maltings, Free Word (politics, performance and literature), Blind Summit (Puppet Theatre, Olympics, English National Opera & Metropolitan Opera New York), Unicorn Theatre for Children, New International Encounter (theatre co, UK and Norway based), Ridiculusmus Theatre (Exec. Producer) and Birmingham Royal Ballet (development & fundraising). Board memberships include Hear Me Out (music), Levantes Dance Theatre, Independent Theatre Council, Proteus Theatre and Business in the Arts South. She has been involved with Action Learning (AL) since the 1990s, gaining advanced ILM certification in 2015 and AL experience includes Create Gloucestershire, The Independent Theatre Council (ITC), School of Social Entrepreneurs (Delhi & London), MIND and Ageing Better charities and Innovation for African Universities (IAU). She has been training Action Learning facilitators since 2014, both virtually and in person. Joanna was a Samaritans listening volunteer for nearly 30 years, as well as developing and delivering training for listeners, trainers and leaders locally, nationally and internationally.

The Community Project 2026 Creative Team

Tomasin Cuthbert - Artistic Director and Lead-Artist

A multi disciplinary artist, Tomasin’s skills span design, illustration, puppet making, storytelling, performance and puppetry as well as producing and running the company single-handedly. She is passionate about making high quality work which surprises and pleases, reminding adults of the magic of play and imagination, and encouraging children to explore, discover and create. Her performance style explores the relationship between puppet and puppeteer, fusing expressive human performances, detailed puppetry and above all lots of humour! She has designed and/or made puppets, or been a puppetry mentor, for numerous companies including Stuff and Nonsense, Sixth Sense theatre, White Horse, the Bristol Old Vic, The Bristol Old the BOV Theatre School and the BOV young company.

Jannah Warlow - Choir Leader

I am a freelance performer and singing leader based in Bristol. My work is firmly rooted in live theatre, with singing and voice at its core. I have worked extensively as an actor, musician, devisor, singer, musical director, choir leader and workshop facilitator with both international and Bristol-based companies. 

​As an independent practitioner, I run community choirs and singing workshops in my local area. I am co-founder of In Our Hands theatre company. We create theatre with rigour, discipline and humour, that explores the meeting point between physical theatre and the voice.

Little Lost Robot CIC - Creative Technology/Sound Art

Little Lost Robot is a not for profit collective of artists managing creative studios based in the area of Bath and North East Somerset.

Our term time programme of creative activities is fully funded for anyone to drop-in and join in. We create community and
we support learning and practicing skills and
career development for creative people.

The activities we offer are designed to support people facing challenges to accessing these types of resources due to isolation, mental health challenges, low income or career gaps and
other types of stigmatisation. We always actively welcome people from GRT communities and those who are no fixed abode.

Little Lost Robot CIC also produces our own
installation artwork that is interactive and playable.