Get involved in the Norfolk Makers Festival 2023

Sat 11 – Sun 19 March 2023

About the Festival

The Norfolk Makers' Festival 2023 is an nine-day event, presented by The Forum, which showcases the talents and skills of local people, celebrates Norfolk’s creative heritage, and inspires thousands of visitors to explore new artistic opportunities.

The exhibitions, the crafting demonstrations and the hands-on activities are all free to the public. In addition, there is a programme of ticketed talks and workshops covering a wide range of crafts, from weaving, spinning and crochet, to painting, printing and pottery.

Would you like to get involved?

The Forum is offering local creatives, who are passionate about what they do and who enjoy sharing their skills and interests with others, the opportunity to be part of the Norfolk Makers' Festival.

There is no venue hire charge; the space, display boards, tables, electricity, and so on, are all offered free of charge by The Forum, up to a maximum of three days.  

In return contributors are required to provide members of the public with free, high-quality, hands-on creative activities, inspiring demonstrations, friendly conversation and inspirational guidance, from 10am to 4pm, each day they are on site.  

What are the benefits?

Participation gives you exposure to a large, engaged audience. Thousands of people come into the Forum each day of the Festival, and our surveys show a significant number are traveling from across the UK to enjoy this annual event.

You can display your work while you are on site, promote what you do and network with other creatives. You can apply to deliver ticketed workshops and you will also benefit from a lively multi-platform marketing strategy.

This is not a selling event or craft market, but if we have enough space, we may permit contributors a small sales area, offering low-cost items relevant to the free activities. Selling must always be secondary to the public engagement and is not guaranteed.  

Why does The Forum do this?

The Forum is run by an independent, self-financing charitable trust, The Forum Trust, which has a commitment to creating educational opportunities and promoting life-long learning and personal development.

The Trust works with local partners to present several free events throughout the year, including the Norwich Science Festival, Heritage Open Days and the Norfolk Makers' Festival. It also supports many community events such as Run Norwich, Norwich Pride, Lord Mayor’s Celebration and the Norfolk and Norwich Festival.

How to apply to be part of the Festival.

We want to ensure the Norfolk Makers' Festival 2023 programme includes a wide range of topics, skills, artists, makers, organisations and communities and that, together, we provide visitors with a high-quality and accessible experience, and genuine learning and self development opportunities.   

If you are interested in taking part, please fill out the expression of interest form and submit it as soon as you can. We will be programming the Festival from the start of October 2022 with a final deadline for submissions of 30 November 2022.

FILL IN YOUR EXPRESSION OF INTEREST FORM 

Don’t worry if you can’t provide a huge amount of detail at this stage; an outline of your plans will suffice initially. Also, please note that submitting a form does not guarantee that we will be able to include you in the 2023 programme.

Everyone who applies will hear personally from the Festival team, whether your application is successful or not, and if you have any questions about this process, or would like a Word copy of this form, please don’t hesitate to contact us using the e mail address below.

norfolkmakersfestival@theforumnorwich.co.uk.

We look forward to hearing from you.  

Please note, all contributors will be asked to adhere to the Norfolk Makers' Festival contributors’ terms and conditions.