August News

We are immensely proud to have been able to deliver TYCA 23 and 24 as free outdoor festival events. We have since discovered they were probably the largest scale youth-led festivals in the UK in that period! We have supported organisations from as far away as Gloucester and Swindon to set up their own youth boards and integrate youth voice into the heart of national outdoor arts conversations.
Unfortunately we have had to accept that in the current economic climate we are unable to deliver an annual, free, entirely youth-led arts festival in Taunton. We have punched so far above our financial weight for so long that a little rebalancing was needed to avoid burnout within our incredibly small, incredibly committed team.
The other big shift in the local arts ecosystem is the birth of Taunton Together Festival. This will be Taunton Town Council’s primary focus in terms of free annual festival events and we have decided to focus on making Taunton Together as youth-led as possible instead of trying to deliver our own free festival day.
In 2024 we coordinated the high street area. In 2025 we will be coordinating the Somerset Square area including our flagship “Rhythm and Tone” stage.
Our annual youth theatre festival will be running as usual on 23rd September at Tacchi Morris and we have a number of other smaller events brewing.
Watch this space!