Arts Fresco - The Midlands' Biggest Street Arts Festival

Want to join me in making a difference? I'm raising money to support ARTS FRESCO and any donation will help make an impact. Thanks in advance for your contribution to this cause that means so much to me.

Arts Fresco is organised by a dedicated team of local business professionals including myself who all volunteer their time and are passionate about arts and Market Harborough. The organisers want to keep Arts Fresco as a public event that is free and accessible for all to attend.

The annual event first ran in 2002 and is one of the largest, free street theatre festivals in the UK and showcases some of the best street theatre performers in the UK and Europe.

Festival goers may not be aware that the event is funded entirely by donations and grants.

In addition to the professional acts, there are many other costs associated with safely staging the event including: road closure; signage; licences; first aid; insurances; street cleaning.

This year, due to an unsuccessful national funding bid, and despite the generosity of the existing sponsors and organisers’ best efforts to raise additional funds, we have failed to raise sufficient funds to provide the Festival that we would like.

We have made the difficult decision to run a much-reduced festival ‘Arts Fresco Lite’ as a fund raiser to support future Arts Fresco events.

In order for a traditional Arts Fresco festival to go ahead in 2025 the total cost will be around £30,000. We have identified around £10,000 from our established supporters and sponsors, but we need your help to raise the additional funds required.

Neil Kitson, Chair of the organising committee of Arts Fresco commented: “Like many festivals, we are limited in the financial support available and after being unsuccessful with a bid for new funding, we have taken the decision to return this year with a slimmed-down version of the festival, highlighting a few of our most popular performers. We hope that people will come out and support us again as we try to sustain the legacy of this amazing community event.”

The annual Arts Fresco Festival will be returning to Market Harborough this September in a much reduced form – 'Arts Fresco Lite'. The event will take place from 11.00 am to 2.30pm on Saturday 7 September 2024 and will feature three major acts.

The acts at Arts Fresco Lite are:

• MarkMark productions – an Arts Fresco favourite and one of Britain's leading festival and street theatre companies

• Slinkies - an adult sized group of playful slinkies!

• Felicity Footloose show - female circus skills

Felicity Footloose’s show will be performed in the square. Slinkies and MarkMark will perform in the area around the old Grammar School, Adam and Eve Street, St Mary’s Place and the square for their walk-about acts.

Arts Fresco Lite will run in conjunction with the Fringe event where singer songwriters will perform in local shops and cafes.

For further information about Arts Fresco, visit www.artsfresco.co.uk.