National Festival of Making 5–6 July 2025 Blackburn Town Centre
Free (with selected ‘Pay as You Feel’ events)
The National Festival of Making returns to Blackburn on 5–6 July 2025 for a vibrant weekend of creativity, community and craftsmanship. Celebrating making in all its forms, from heritage craft to contemporary design, the festival transforms the town centre with art, performance, and hands-on experiences.
This year’s headline speaker is architect and TV presenter George Clarke MBE, who appears in conversation with festival co-founder Wayne Hemingway MBE. Tickets will be available on a ‘pay as you feel’ basis.
At the heart of the programme is Art in Manufacturing, featuring new commissions from Matter at hand (the design studio of Turner Prize-winning Assemble co-founder Lewis Jones) with Darwen Terracotta, Morag Myerscough with Crown Paints, and Liaqat Rasul with Herbert Parkinson (part of the John Lewis Partnership). These commissions highlight the powerful intersection of making, material and meaning.
Additional National Festival of Making include:
- Come As You Really Are by Hetain Patel, an exhibition featuring contributions from hobbyists across Lancashire.
- Home:Zero, a family-friendly, sustainability-themed installation
- Light Organ, a sound-reactive light display.
- Workshops on signwriting, Jesmonite casting, puppet-making, DIY skills and more.
- Live music and street theatre
- Curated markets showcase regional makers and food producers
Full programme details will be available and updated regularly here: https://festivalofmaking.co.uk/whats-on/
About the National Festival of Making:
Held annually in Blackburn, Lancashire since 2017, the National Festival of Making is a unique celebration of making in all its forms — from the kitchen table to the factory floor. The free weekend festival brings together contemporary art, craft, performance, design, manufacturing, and communities through a dynamic town-centre programme of exhibitions, workshops, talks, markets and installations.
About Art in Manufacturing:
Art in Manufacturing is the festival’s flagship commissioning programme, placing artists in residence with manufacturers across the region. From terracotta to textiles, each residency results in a major new public work, born from collaboration with highlyskilled workforces, specialist tools, and historic industrial processes. It is a nationally recognised model for cross-sector creativity and innovation