Looking back #SALTFest & what was felt, seen, heard, tasted or experienced across its duration. The festival returned for its fourth year, with a mix of joy and provocation, urgency and exhilaration as we immersed ourselves in questions of landscape and culture. Together we explored environmental concerns such as extinction and climate; considered public activism, slow fashion, and (re)wilding; devoured hearty local food, built boats, bellowed shanties, and so much more.
Co-curated by Folkestone Fringe, Go to the Pine and Creative Folkestone, SALT explores the way coastal environments shape who we are and asks what the future might hold for the creatures and places that exist on the edge.
The exploration of themes & topics emerged from the think-ins previous to the festival, with focuses such as; Climate Crisis, Extinction, Family Activism, Youth Protest, Becoming Plastic Free, The Circular Economy and Fast Fashion across areas such as biodiversity, species’ extinction, and sustainability. Through this, we now want audiences to feel encouraged to lead and enact change in their communities as a result of what they saw and experienced during the festival.
SALT is the most local of all our festivals and it engenders an enormous amount of pride in the community and the local environment as well as helping people to learn more about their town. This year, the interpreting, experimentation & study of the local inevitably coordinated with the current climate emergency in its urgency & coverage. We hope SALT offered the variety of time & space for us all to learn, question & understand what we're seeing, hearing or feeling through our own individual ways.
If you attended some of the events, passed-by, or simply heard about the Festival- we'd love to hear your feedback! Any thoughts, points of inspiration, favourite events, things to change, or work you'd like to see continue/develop, please email [email protected]!
Follow for all updates: @fringeopen // @fstonefringe // @SALT_fest // @FstoneFringe
Thanks to:
Folkestone Fringe, Creative Folkestone, Go to the Pine, Arts Council England, Roger de Haan Charitable Trust, Folkestone-Hythe District Council, Folkestone Town Council, Team London Bridge, Circumference Circus, Folke, Harbour Company, White Cliff Countryside Partnership, Guardians of the Deep, The Pullman, Plastic Free Ashford.
A special thanks to Clare Unsworth & Cassie Newcombe of Foxbite Media (Filming) & Peter Halpin (Photography) for documenting the Festival. Photography published here >>
SALT Festival of the Sea & Environment is co-curated by Go To The Pine,Creative Folkestone & Folkestone Fringe. Go To The Pine is an eco-poetry course & workshop centre. Creative Folkestone is an arts charity dedicated to transforming Folkestone through collective creative activity. We do these festivals to enrich the cultural calendar of our town, bring people together, and connect Folkestone with the wider world.
