THE BIG FEAST
A joyous love letter to Stoke-on-Trent and its people …
Appetite launched The Big Feast – a festival-style event in Stoke-on-Trent City Centre (Hanley) – in 2014 as a free, outdoor event where art and artists pop up in streets, buildings and underused spaces of the city centre. It’s a feast of accessible, family-friendly fun to tickle everybody’s taste buds, giving you a summer holiday weekend unlike any other. How do we know? Because people tell us they come back year after year!
Over the years (with a break in 2020 due to Covid restrictions) we’ve hosted the very best artists from all over including local and national artists, and even performers and groups from across Europe. Wherever they live, they come together in Hanley to fill the streets with culture and give thrilled audiences a unique arts experience made especially for Stoke-on-Trent. From the unbelievable to the heart-warming to the jaw-dropping, every year is a unique assortment of some of the best that outdoor arts has to offer. Yet year after year one thing remains constant: The Big Feast creates lasting memories for all who come along.
In the words of Appetite Director Gemma Thomas: “We love filling the streets of our city centre with fun, laughter, music, circus and more!” You can see some of those amazing moments from The Big Feast 2014 – 2023 in this stunning A-Z, which had pride of place as a print exhibition at our lead organisation New Vic Theatre in the run up to 2024’s event.
How does The Big Feast get made?
The Big Feast is delivered by Appetite in partnership with Stoke-on-Trent City Centre Business Improvement District (BID) and Stoke-on-Trent City Council. The event is funded annually by our partnerships with City Centre BID and the National Lottery through Arts Council England’s Creative People and Places programme.
We could not deliver The Big Feast without our production partner PH Production Services who help us build what you see on the day and create a safe environment for performers and audience members alike.
How is the programme chosen?
Appetite work with many groups and individuals in diverse communities across Stoke-on-Trent and Newcastle-under-Lyme. We enlist the opinions of these community decision makers to help shape our entire programme, including the performances that you see at The Big Feast.
In 2024 we consulted with 12 community groups and over 450 individuals to create the event programme. This included members of Appetite’s Supper Club, Lunch Club, and our volunteers. Others got involved through Amity Hub, Walk Talk Action, North Midlands LGBT+Older People’s Group, Staffordshire Sight Loss Association, dDeaflinks Staffordshire, DEAFvibe, Lifeworks Staffordshire, Keele Chapel Craft Club, Keele Student Chapel Fellowship, NORSACA, Carelink, Middleport Matters, Staffs CAN, Keele SU Volunteering Network, and Pride in Castle.
The Big Feast 2024 – 10th edition – featuring Luminarium!
On Friday 23 and Saturday 24 August 2024 Appetite celebrated The Big Feast 2024 in brilliant fashion! Performers from the worlds of music, street theatre, circus, dance and more joined us. Young or old, returning visitor or first-timer, there was something for everybody to enjoy over two days of free, exhilarating arts on the streets across 13 locations. The 10th edition of The Big Feast truly was a joyous celebration, and a timely pick-me-up for Stoke-on-Trent.
Circus Raj came from India dancing on a bed of nails while experimental brass band Perhaps Contraption led people all across the centre on The Journey. Ghetto Fabulous sashayed the house down and spread beams of love and positivity too as New Vic Borderlines’ hit play The Miner Birds was performed to mark the 40th anniversary of the 1984 miners’ strike. And dance was high on everybody’s itinerary with powerful Hip Hop from Just Us Dance Theatre, a 1950s Twist-off with Miss High Leg Kick, and FRONTLINEdance* presenting Breakthrou’ effortlessly integrating disabled and non-disabled performers.
Our greatest thanks for a smooth-running event go to the Appetite team, our production partner PH Production Services, suppliers and freelance team and our project partners: Stoke-on-Trent City Centre BID and Genr8 at Smithfield Stoke with the support of many people across many departments of Stoke-on-Trent City Council. We are also very grateful to venues in the city centre who partnered with us to either deliver performances or as a space to support staff, volunteers and performers including Longest Boardgame Bar & Cafe, Victoria Hall, Potteries Museum & Art Gallery, AirSpace Gallery, and The Potteries Centre. And nobody could forget the amazing potato van run by B-Arts that kept everybody warm and fed throughout both days.
This year, The Big Feast celebrations started early when Luminarium descended on Hanley Park from Wednesday 14 – Friday 16 August. Luminarium is an extraordinary inflatable labyrinth of calming soundscapes and enveloping lights from Architects of Air by Alan Parkinson. So anticipated was the event that pre-bookable tickets sold out within 24 hours! Thanks to Hanley Park for hosting the event which was part-funded by the UK government through the UK Shared Prosperity Fund.
See the sights, hear audience reactions and see fantastic photographs in the videos below. You can also enjoy videos of live streams from The Big Feast over on our YouTube Channel.
The Big Feast Through the Years
Not just the city centre …
Did you know that The Big Feast has also popped up in communities around Stoke-on-Trent and Newcastle-under-Lyme? Taster Tours have given people a glimpse of what they can expect more of if they were to come along to the main event.
Thank you for so many wonderful memories!
We would like to say a great big THANK YOU to everybody who has come along, joined in and enjoyed something new at The Big Feast. If you have any feedback you’d like to give us, we’d love to hear it! Simply email us on askus@appetite.org.uk.
Over the past 10 editions we are fortunate to have built meaningful and lasting relationships with many people and organisations who have played a role in funding and delivering The Big Feast. We owe our thanks to lots of people, first and foremost our consortium who support us in all that we do.
We are proud to have been a network partner of Without Walls. Offsite led by Déda.
Credits
Videography by Junction 15.
Photography by: Jenny Harper Photography, Andrew Billington Photography, Phil Radcliffe Photography, Clara Lou Photography, Malcolm Hart Photography & Film, Chris Patrick Photography, and Steve Eggleton.
*FRONTLINEdance have a brilliant Access & Inclusivity Toolbox available on Dropbox to anybody who would like to examples of best practice in making their practice more inclusive.
