The days are finally getting longer. Winter plans will soon turn into spring preparations and brighter days will see the launch of our sunny summer festival. Watch this space for news of colour, culture and festive fun.
Ripon Theatre Festival is rapidly becoming a key event in the region’s calendar. We are building a reputation for staging a high-quality and friendly programme of performing arts, from street entertainment and open-air theatre to family shows, puppetry, storytelling, dance and comedy.
We’d love you to join us in 2025!
Save the dates for a week of performances popping up all over our glorious city. Many events will be free to attend and there’s always plenty for families.
And there are opportunities to get involved as performers and volunteers too.
Our main festival takes place from 1st – 6th July, but we’ll be out and about in the community before then too with projects and activities to bring everyone together.
Don’t forget to join our mailing list and follow us on all our socials to keep up to date with the latest news.
Come along to our spring Launch Event on 20 March to hear everything we have planned!
Sign up to our mailing list to be first to hear about our shows and special subscriber offers.
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Pick up your copy of the Festival Guide from the Ripon Arts Hub, Ripon Library, supermarkets and other shops. Or open the guide using the button below and save to your PC or mobile device.
Open Guide
Follow our social accounts to keep up to date and join the conversation:
A long weekend of VE Day Commemorations in Ripon will conclude with a powerful and poignant event at Lister House.
RTF and the Ripon Community Poppy Project are joining forces to present Bomb Happy.
We are delighted to announce that Ripon Theatre Festival has received its first award of funds from Arts Council England. This crucial support will enable us to bring more of the highest quality theatre, street entertainment, and other performances to our city.
Deadline approaching for Community Acts to sign up for 2025. We are looking for choirs, dance troupes, theatre groups, musicians and solo performers to join us for our family days on the 5th and 6th July.
RTF is run by a small team of volunteers. We work together with our funders, venues and community partners to bring colour and culture to all the communities of the city, contributing to Ripon’s development as a vibrant place to live, work and visit.
RTF is the primary project of longstanding local charity, The Ripon City Festival Trust (charity number 514981).
Find out more about us here.
The festival welcomes professional performers onto our city streets and venues, but it’s the people of Ripon who will really make the festival fly!
We rely on volunteers for:
Whether you want to check tickets, look after our visiting performers or sing your heart out on a street corner, please do get in touch.
It costs around £50,000 each year to stage the festival and run our Community Outreach Programme. We are very grateful to all those who have supported us in our journey so far, but of course we constantly need to find new sources of funding. As a registered charity, all the funding we raise goes directly towards making the festival happen.
Ways you might like to help us:
