DNP0018-23 River and Moorland Festivals

Dartmoor National Park Authority is the lead partner for Dartmoor’s Dynamic Landscapes, an area-based partnership programme for nature and people supported by the National Lottery Heritage Fund (NLHF). The programme is a wide-ranging partnership scheme with a landscape scale focus on three of Dartmoor’s river catchments – the Okement, Dart, and the Erme & Yealm. Projects delivered through the programme will help celebrate Dartmoor’s natural and cultural heritage, enhance the landscape and priority habitats, and connect more people to Dartmoor to strengthen the sense of place within these landscapes. The programme has a cross cutting theme of laying foundations for the future as projects will look at new ways of working and developing skills to help navigate change over the next decade. The delivery phase of the programme will run from 2025-2030.

The level of funding offered by the NLHF is in two stages, the Partnership have been successful in securing a Stage 1 development grant, the main grant for delivery of the programme is contingent on successful development work and submission of a comprehensive and high-quality Stage 2 bid, this development work is underway.

Dartmoor National Park Authority, as lead partner, wishes to award a contract over a 6-year time period to support the development and delivery of River and Moorland Festivals in Okehampton, Ivybridge and Princetown. It is expected that this contract will be delivered through a dedicated arts development partner who will work in partnership with the project team to develop a festival delivery plan and facilitate the delivery of a number of festivals, at least one in each of these three gateway towns. The festivals will help local communities and new audiences connect to, understand, and celebrate the landscape heritage of the river catchments. At the same time, each festival will support the local economy of each town. It is envisaged that each festival could include a series of community and/or schools arts engagement events, workshops and activities and finish with a celebration event.

The allocated budget for this project is £72,000 for the 6 years.