Our Future Starts Here - in Cleethorpes
1 May 2025
Culture programme runs from 24 - 31 May with outdoor and indoor theatre shows, workshops, providing fun and engaging experiences for all the family.
Grimsby-based arts organisation The Culture House will be presenting its next programme of culture - Our Future Starts Here, with activity in Cleethorpes and Grimsby, over the late May bank holiday and half term.
Supported by Create North East Lincolnshire, Arts Council England, Without Walls and AP Robinson, the Our Future Starts Here programme promises fun days out and experiences for all ages, while also being a little thought-provoking.
This year Our Future Starts Here links with a national festival called Beach of Dreams, coordinated overall by national arts organisation Kinetika.
A North East Lincolnshire partnership is hosting a wide range of activity in Cleethorpes on Monday 26 May for Beach of Dreams and The Culture House’s contribution through Our Future Starts Here on the day includes amazing free outdoor shows, a lovely children’s theatre show and nature inspired creative sessions.
Other local Beach of Dreams partners include LaCuna, Outdoor Learning Schools, Our Big Picture, What if We Create and Sarah Allen who are all hosting activities on Monday 26 May, making for a busy day in the resort.
Culture House will be presenting additional shows on Saturday 24 May at Docks Beers, Tuesday 27 May at Grimsby Minster and Saturday 31 in Grimsby on a variety of themes, for different audiences (see further below).
Culture House Director, Charlotte Bowen, said:
"The aim of the Our Future Starts Here programme is to explore the rapidly changing world around us now, through an arts innovative programme.
"This year we are additionally joining forces with local partners to participate in 'Beach of Dreams', a national festival celebrating the UK’s coastlines. This means that all Our Future Starts Here activity on Monday 26 May will take place in Cleethorpes, along with all the other partners’ events and activities.
“We will be hosting an amazing programme of highly skilled performance in a range of spaces. We’re gathering thoughts about what Cleethorpes means to people alongside hosting indoor and outdoor shows and workshops, all exploring nature and the environment in fun and creative ways.
"In addition to all of this, there will be three more free theatre shows on different topics for different ages, on Saturday 24 May and Tuesday 27 May and Saturday 31 in Grimsby, all highlighting and supporting understanding of issues of our time, in imaginative ways."
OUR FUTURE STARTS HERE LISTINGS
Monday 26 May
Cleethorpes
11:00am
2.30pm
Flotsam and Jetsam
by Lempen Puppet Theatre
St Peter’s Church Hall
St Peter’s Avenue
Cleethorpes
DN35 8HP
Ages 4 - 104!
Accessible venue
All tickets £5
Lasts 45mins
Flotsam floats, Jetsam sinks – both their worlds are on the brinks,
The jagged arcs of waves and sharks – chase them both in minds and hearts.
They must break through their tears and fears -and worries of a thousand years,
To find what’s true and out of the blue – discover the other and a friend that’s new.
Flotsam is soft, flexible, laid back. She slides and glides through life on the ice. Jetsam is the opposite, his insectile body is stiff and nervy, alert and watchful, suspicious of all in his forest home.
And then comes the weather… and they are both cast adrift in a world that is strange to them and full of a range of dangers.
Finally washed up on the same island beach they must discover the other and work out how they can work together.
A hopeful, adventure story about two very different creatures that must learn to work together. Visual theatre with original music and delightful puppetry.
Suitable for everyone from 4 – 104.
Audience comments:
“Flotsam & Jetsam was magical and beautiful!”
“I loved it all. It was beautifully performed. The puppets were lovely and the music was enchanting.”
11:30am
2.15pm
Bamboo
by No Fit State Circus
The Boating Lake Paddock
Cleethorpes
DN35 0AQ
All Ages
Accessible space
Lasts 45mins
Come and witness world-class acrobats and circus artists as they create an installation from Bamboo and use impressive feats of strength and agility to bring the WOW factor by performing a show you will have never seen before!
Watch them build, move, navigate and inhabit the structure as they go - other than bamboo and a few natural rubber ties, there is no ‘circus equipment’!
The bamboo sculptures weave in and out, moving through space and within themselves, all in response to the actions of the artists who carry, climb, swing from, jump, balance, and tumble on and off as they navigate the web of interconnected layers.
This tension between the delicate nature of the bamboo and its ability to withstand pressure and strength creates a truly impressive and mesmerising audience experience – celebrating what is possible when humans and the natural world work in harmony, trusting each other.
12:15
14:30
Life’s a Beach
by JoliVyann
Kingsway Kiosk
Cleethorpes
DN35 0BY
Accessible venue
All ages
Lasts 35 mins (Everywhere’s a Beach by Hikapee is on straight afterwards)
Joli Vyann’s new show, ‘Life’s a Beach’ is a joyous view of a day at the beach. It is a fun and playful show, also touching on serious subjects such as sewage in our seas and antisocial behaviour.
Using their unique style of dance/ circus fusion Joli Vyann play a couple living by the sea from their 20s to old age, with the show featuring hilarious scenarios of selfie obsessions, obnoxious beach behavior and embarrassing swimwear!
Witness skilled acrobatic performance while seeing scenes of friendship, beach meditation, dog walking and the couple growing old together.
The sound-track will feature local people and visitors expressing what they love about Cleethorpes.
Also catch Joli Vyann on Sunday 25 May at the Kinsgway Kiosk when they will be out and about interviewing people about what they love about Cleethorpes!
This will be made into a recording and played as part of the soundtrack for the show on Monday
13:00
15:15
Everywhere’s a Beach
by Hikapee
On the beach just near the Kingsway Kiosk
All ages
Lasts 35mins
Join us for a day at the beach unlike any other in this high energy, outdoor circus theatre show!
Perfect for the whole family, Everywhere’s a Beach is a charmingly ridiculous performance, taking place on a giant revolving beach parasol!
This dynamic, dizzying and downright daft show will leave you dancing with delight!
You’ll be swept away as this show embraces everything we love about the beach. Our spinning parasol creates the perfect setting for our eccentric beach loving characters. Watch as their world collides with yours, as sophistication turns to chaos in this aerial circus performance.
12:20
15:05
Right to Play
by Pif Paf
Times
Boating Lake Paddock
Cleethorpes
DN35 0QA
Accessible space
Aimed at children and families
Duration: 2 hours (stay as little or as long as you like)
Come along and build an adventure playground from bamboo!
Two performers (“builders”) will work with you while weaving stories in.
12:30pm - 2.30pm (stay as long as you like)
Beach of Dreams Workshop
Drop in
with Sarah Allen
Cleethorpes Beach - location to be advised
Aimed at children and families
Go ‘beachcombing’ for finds of natural treasures that have been washed up on the shore and then develop images using the art of Cyanotype (a sustainable photography practice using water and sunlight to develop images).
Sarah Allen will be helping children and families make a series of eye-catching and thought-provoking artworks that incorporate these treasures that nature has provided as well as the trash that has been discarded/washed up on the shore.
While doing the activity, there’s chance to discuss the small changes we can make to protect our local landscape and the wider world.
10am - 4pm
Central Promenade
Green Influencers
Participate in a range of activities including:
Using eco-friendly resources, come and participate in gel plate shell mono-printing, create sand-based temporary collages, discover information about single use-plastics and benefit from free samples that encourage sustainable lifestyles
Voices of the Future by Freestyle Academy
Your chance to hear what young people from North East Lincolnshire want for their future, in this specially created sound-scape listened to through headphones, which was the result of our recent Voices of the Future project.
You will also have the chance to contribute to sound recordings on the day about Cleethorpes.
Additional OFSH activity:
Saturday 24 May
11:30am
Shed Stories by Casson and Friends
Docks Academy
You're invited to a unique theatrical experience celebrating men’s sheds and the communities around them.
Shed Stories is a new performance from Lincolnshire based creative company Casson & Friends, inspired by interviews with 'Shedders' of all ages. The show will bring to life human, humorous and heartwarming tales of making sawdust, friends, and cups of tea!
WHAT are 'MEN’S SHEDS’?
Men’s Sheds are community spaces where men can pursue practical skills including making and mending and also offer a social space for men with similar interests to be together - rather than alone. These spaces not only offer somewhere to develop and share skills, but build social connections and friendships that can improve mental health and reduce the potential for loneliness and isolation.
what audiences are saying:
“Entertaining & informative, I didn’t know much about Men’s Sheds but I do now! And the dancing was amazing!”
Booking link: https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/our-future-starts-here-presents-shed-stories-by-casson-and-friends-tickets-1325936304179
Tuesday 27 May
Collection Day
by Rhubarb Theatre
Grimsby Minster
DN31 1EP
11:30am
1.30pm
All ages
Free - must be booked
Accessible venue
Suitable for ages 4+
Collection Day!
It’s bin day and two refuse collectors are heroically cleaning the streets. But what’s this? A dustbin that refuses rubbish. Delving into its depths, we discover that ‘one man’s trash is another man’s treasure’, as a wonderful myriad of stories and treats ensue from all that is rubbish and recycled.
Rhubarb Theatre bring a dustbin of fun, a black sack of eco messages and heaps of mime, physical theatre, comedy, puppetry and creativity into this entertaining storytelling piece.
North East Lincolnhire’s Environmental Officers will also be there on the day to help advise on recycling.
Follow The Culture House @theculturehousegy on socials for updates
The Culture House is an arts and culture organisation in Grimsby dedicated to bringing arts and culture to life.
