An unusual and lively summit ahead of this year’s National Festival of Thrift saw part of a North East museum transformed into a mobile embassy for an idealistic country entirely constructed of cardboard!
Representatives from Cardboardia issued an open invitation for people to sign up as citizens and have fun taking part in creative inspiration and collaboration using cardboard at Kirkleatham Museum near Redcar.
The new Cardboardia residents then joined forces and set to work making decorations and costumes be featured at this year’s Festival.
The Kirkleatham Estate is once again home to the Festival, the UK’s hugely popular celebration of sustainable and stylish living, which is taking place on 23 and 24 September.
The summit workshop was led by the Moscow-based team of artists behind Cardboardia who made the trip to inspire artists, makers and young people to get involved with this year’s event.
Stella Hall, Director of the Festival of Thrift, explained that the Cardboardia team has spent the past decade creating temporary towns around the world.
“Cardboardia is a country where people can re-invent themselves for a while. It has no territory, but has its own economic, political and social system and the team travels, organises national holidays and opens Cardboardia Embassies around the world, which will include Kirkleatham in September.
“It is all great fun and the workshops are part of our drive to build communities where anyone with a creative spirit can engage with each other and let their imaginations run wild.
“We had a great team of artists, makers and young people from Kirkleatham Hall School and some amazing and fun creations emerged – we hope even more will be made and paraded during this year’s Festival.”
Saltburn resident Che Lax is now a proud citizen of Cardboardia. He said: “A friend told me about the chance to come along and work with cardboard and I thought what’s not to like about that!
“It’s been fantastic and I’ve really enjoyed it.”
In 2016 over 35,000 people attended the Festival of Thrift and in 2017 visitors can once again enjoy a hands-on weekend packed with creativity, making, fixing and learning together, discovering how to save money, be environmentally savvy and live a rich and fulfilling life.
Regular updates about this year’s Festival are at www.festivalofthrift.co.uk