You can reach the world from Dover 23 Festival

DAD Festivals

The end of anything is an emotional moment.

And what an end – with a parade on October 8th at dusk along the Dover Esplanade of lighthouse lanterns made and carried by thirty two MA Architecture students from the UCA School of Architecture in Canterbury and local Dover families who have learnt the skill to make them from the Dover based organisation Future Foundry. DAD is delighted to be celebrating a festival partnership with the wonderful Future Foundry in this Way. And thank you to the musicians who accompanied the parade so beautifully Dave Robinson on Drum and Paul Cheneour on Flute.

We also recently celebrated our Festival partnership with Dover SmART with Louise Webbs Dover Draws exhibition in the Dover SmART gallery.

Over a year ago we started planning for the You can reach the world from Dover 2023 Festival

And in June 2023 the festival started with Simon Bill starting work on his first optical illusion Mural in Tower St in Tower Hamlets and the Sophie von Hellermans exhibition Dover 2020 curated by Nicolas Deshayes being installed in Dover Museum.

All the artists and walk leaders in the Festival are resident in Dover or Dover District

Since July the festival lighthouse by Charles Holland architects – I’m looking out for you – has kept a watchful eye over the 4 months of festival activities.

We have had a walk every Sunday led by a local expert

Simon Bill in the lesser known peripheries of the town and countryside boundaries.

Jamie Partridge on butterflies and the migration of birds around Dover

Mel Wrigley in partnership with the WCCP on the mega flood that tore England away from France also in partnership with the WCCP Ilona Dubieniec on her beloved river Dour.

Danny B’s Radical Walks taking in the Radical social history of Dover

Architecture walks in Dover with Christopher Lumgair and Charles Holland and out along the North Downs Way with Daniel Stillwell, Ryan Cooke and Peter Morris.

Other artworks have been

Prison unlocked with AnnaPhoebe and Richard Bundy have performed in the grand shaft ,St Edmunds Chapel and Dover Museum.

Joseph Blacks wonderful mural tribute to the late Dover based artist Mike Tedder in Flying Horse Lane thanks to Dr Richard Sandilands

The Shocked into Presence exhibition of paintings by Joanna Jones curated by Nicolas Deshayes up at the Citadel.

Samara Scott and Amy Dwatkin’s Sunset Catwalk fashion show in the Market Square in Dover

There have also been happenings from

 Pokit No forwarding address in Castle Street

Andrew Cross rolling on rolling off in Dover Museum

Gabor Stark’s Voltaires Rake

Dover Fictions in the Vinoteq

Alma Tischlerwoods From Dover with Love at her Alice sculpture in Kearsney Abbey and the Royal Cinq Ports Yacht Club

Ian Bride’s Sentinel Trees in Kearsney Abbey and the river Dour Centre

All of this has been made possible by the venues and the people who make sure that those venues are safe and function smoothly for the proposed event. The Port of Dover for all things lighthouse. Dover District Council, Dover Museum, The Citadel, The Tower Hamlets Scout club, The land Trust, Momo Hub, La Salle Verte , Elephant and Hinds, Vinoteq, Royal Cinq Ports Yacht Club, River Dour Centre, Riverside Day Centre, Samphire’s Multi Culture Festival, North Downs Way.

 Also a huge thank you to our graphic designer Edda Salander-Jones who has kept us all on track with her clear graphic branding and Karen Pamplin Browne our Festival evaluator who has kept us on track with our targets and outputs.

Also a huge thank you to the Dover Creative Network – Petra Mathews Crow and Steph O’Connor who along with Visit Dover have done so much to get the word out about the Festival.

Thanks also to Roger Parish, the Wombles, workshop leaders Bim Malcomson, and Sarah Demich.  Kate Beaugie, Tomas Poblete, Cormac Martin, Owenbeg and Troy Galt whose scaffolding has constructed the lighthouse, allowed Joseph Black to paint his Mural, and Pokit to have an outdoor exhibition in Castle Street

 But there would not have been a festival if it hadn’t been for our main funders Arts Council England, Kent Downs AONB, The North Downs Way National Trail and the Cross Channel GEOPARK.

And of course the success of the festival has been dependent on all of you who have come to events often again and again across the summer

Thank you for filling out the hundreds of online feedback surveys QR coded from our little festival cards, it is the way we can prove to our funders that we have reached out to you.