A quick note before we get started.
BAD NEWS: There won’t be a Cultured. On Sunday this weekend, as Sam and her household are spending too much of it going backwards and forwards to hospitals. Nothing serious, thankfully - just very time-consuming.
GOOD NEWS: You’ll find a couple of bonus features in today’s Digest. Dave Whetstone reports from a tour of Culture House Sunderland and previews the Hexham Abbey Festival, while we also look at the legacy of The Cultural Spring’s Gig Culture project.
Thanks for your understanding and see you Tuesday!
Dan Burn to start biggest Great North Run
Newcastle United captain Dan Burn will be the official starter for the 2026 AJ Bell Great North Run on Sunday (September 13).
The England defender will set a record 63,000 runners on their way from Newcastle to South Shields for the 45th anniversary event.
The anniversary celebrations got under way in Newcastle city centre on Friday morning, where race founder Sir Brendan Foster was joined by North East Mayor Kim McGuinness, elite runner Eilish McColgan, reigning Great North Run champions Alex Mutiso and Sheila Chepkirui, and North East runner Calum Johnson.
Good luck to everyone taking part – the Great North Run is always a special weekend for the region, whether you’re running, volunteering or cheering from the sidelines.
And if you’re making a weekend of it, don’t forget there’s also a busy Great North Run Fringe programme of events to enjoy.
Kema Kay gets major backing for next theatre project
Newcastle artist Kema Kay is to create a new theatre work and help develop opportunities for Black creatives in the North East after securing more than £237,000 from Arts Council England.
The writer, rapper, actor and performer is at the centre of a Newcastle-based partnership with Northern Roots and Live Theatre which has been awarded £237,084 through the Theatre Breakthrough Fund.
The funding will support the creation of Kema’s new work, Bred and Roses, alongside a wider programme aimed at building infrastructure for Black-led theatre in the region.
That will include paid opportunities, mentoring and leadership pathways for Black, Asian and ethnically diverse creatives, with the partnership also looking to develop audiences for a broader range of stories and address underrepresentation within the theatre sector.
Kema, artistic director of the Northern Roots project, said: “Receiving the Theatre Breakthrough fund is an incredible moment for me and the communities I represent. This investment lets us build something bigger than one production.
Sunderland music legend takes his place on Wall of Fame
A mural honouring the man who brought some of the biggest names in rock and folk music to Sunderland has been unveiled on the city’s Music Wall of Fame.
Promoter Geoff Docherty, who died in March aged 86, was celebrated outside The Fire Station on Thursday evening, ahead of a sold-out memorial show held in his honour.
The mural was created through a partnership between illustrator Kathryn Robertson, The Fire Station and Sunderland Music City.
Over a career spanning decades, Geoff played a significant role in Sunderland’s live music scene, promoting concerts by Led Zeppelin, The Who, David Bowie, Pink Floyd, Tyrannosaurus Rex, Free and Family.
Masterpiece in good company
Faces from the North East’s past have joined a painting by portrait artist Pierre Mignard on display on Tyneside as part of the National Gallery Masterpiece Tour.
Mignard’s The Marquise de Seignelay (1691) will be at South Shields Museum & Art Gallery until November 7.
The Masterpiece Tour brings works from the national collection to audiences across the UK and South Shields is one of just five partner venues selected to take part.
The painting is accompanied by a selection of portraits from the collections of North East Museums. Read more
I Fought The Law wins at National Television Awards
North East-shot drama I Fought The Law picked up the Best New Drama prize at this week’s National Television Awards.
Starring Sheridan Smith, the ITV series told the true story of Ann Ming and her long fight to change the law after her daughter Julie Hogg was murdered.
Her 17-year fight led to the abolition of the 800-year-old double jeopardy law, allowing people acquitted of serious crimes to be retried when compelling new evidence emerges.
The drama, which was supported by North East Screen, was filmed on Teesside, where the real events took place.
Yourcodenameis:milo announce Sunderland date
North East alt-rock band Yourcodenameis:milo will play Sunderland’s Pop Recs on December 13 as part of a rare four-date UK tour.
The band emerged to considerable acclaim in the early 2000s, winning Best British Newcomer at the 2004 Kerrang! Awards and releasing records produced by Steve Albini and Flood. They toured with the likes of Biffy Clyro and Enter Shikari before going on hiatus in 2007.
They returned in 2023 for two sold-out shows at The Cluny in Newcastle in aid of the Bobby Robson Foundation and an appearance at ArcTanGent Festival.
The December tour also takes in London, Manchester and Glasgow. Tickets are on sale now.
Prestigious commission backs North East play about the apocalypse
When we spoke to North East playwright Alison Carr last week ahead of the premiere of her new play All At Sea, she mentioned there was some interesting news on the way.
She wasn’t kidding. The writer has been awarded a prestigious Peter Shaffer Commission to develop a major new play with Newcastle’s Unfolding Theatre.
The £7,294 award, administered by the National Theatre in collaboration with the Sir Peter Shaffer Charitable Foundation, will support That Friday Feeling (but Friday is the Apocalypse), a darkly funny play about closures, endings and what we leave behind.
Set in the offices of the London Gazette in the near future, it follows the clerks responsible for officially recording company closures as the world around them begins to shut down too.
Finding their spot: Gig Culture gets young musicians playing
Leopard Print didn’t exist two years ago.
Its five members hadn’t met, let alone written songs, rehearsed or performed together. Now they are playing venues across the North East, recording new music, working towards their first EP and talking about touring.
The band came together through Gig Culture, a project developed and run by The Cultural Spring which used South Tyneside’s rich musical heritage to inspire and support a new generation of young musicians.
Running through 2024 and 2025, it brought young people together to write and perform their own material, develop their skills and learn more about the different ways they might make music part of their future.
When the project came to an end last autumn, Leopard Print faced an important test: could the band continue without the structure and support which had brought them together?
Their first independent booking, at Garden Lane in South Shields, provided the answer.
Castle weekend puts Northumbrian pipes centre stage
Alnwick Castle will celebrate one of the region’s most distinctive musical traditions with a weekend dedicated to Northumbrian smallpipes on September 19 and 20.
Visitors can have a go at playing the pipes with musician Ednie Wilson on Saturday, before a traditional hornpipe clog dancing demonstration with Duke’s Piper Andrew Davison.
On Sunday, more than 50 musicians will gather in the Guest Hall for an afternoon performance.
The weekend will also feature talks exploring the tradition of the Duke’s Piper and a special exhibition drawing on material from the Castle Archives.
Anton Du Beke brings Ballet Shoes to Sunderland
Strictly Come Dancing star Anton Du Beke will lead the cast of Ballet Shoes when it comes to Sunderland Empire from November 30 to December 4, 2027.
Du Beke will play Great Uncle Matthew and Fidolia at selected performances of the acclaimed production when it tours next year, adapted by Kendall Feaver from Noel Streatfeild’s much-loved novel.
The show enjoyed sold-out runs at the National Theatre in 2024 and 2025. Tickets will be on general sale at 10am on September 24.
Culture House set to share its wonders
A seagull was pacing disconcertedly outside Culture House on Wednesday morning.
“Flip me,” it seemed to be thinking. “How do you get into this place?”
I was thinking along similar lines. A few days ahead of the official opening, the doors were shut tight as a clam and resistant to all forms of two-legged approach.
Well, you never know with automatic doors.
In my experience, some fly open at the hint of a distant footstep while others require near nose-to-glass contact. One pair I know favours the latter but then opens outwards, requiring sudden evasive action.
Being excluded gave me and the seagull (possibly) time to consider first impressions of this £27 million addition to Sunderland’s ‘cultural quarter’, which has seen the Keel Square area dramatically transformed.
Against the nearby Empire theatre and the Peacock and Dun Cow pubs, flamboyant reminders of a bygone age, this modern FaulknerBrowns creation is large, boxy and angular, with expanses of pale brick.
Four writers, four new ideas for the North East
Four North East writers and artists have been selected to develop new projects spanning theatre, film, poetry and publishing as part of the Creative Associates Programme
New Writing North, working with Live Theatre and Tyneside Cinema, will support the Creative Associates programme projects over the next six months, with funding from the North East Mayoral Strategic Authority’s Create Talent programme.
Actor and writer Christina Berriman Dawson will become writer-in-residence at Live Theatre, developing RAW, inspired by the underground free party movement in Newcastle and Northumberland.
Newcastle writer-director Johnny Massahi joins Tyneside Cinema as screenwriter-in-residence, where he will finish his debut feature film, currently titled Iranian Pornographer.
Newcastle poet Ilisha Thiru Purcell will use her New Writing North residency to create a sequence of poems in response to and in conversation with the work of Julia Darling.
The fourth Creative Associate is Northumberland-based writer and artist Stevie Ronnie, who will develop and pilot a new model for producing artist books, bringing writers directly into the design and making process. Read more.
The Alnwick Garden unwraps its plans for Christmas
Visitors to The Alnwick Garden will be able to explore illuminations across both the Garden and Lilidorei when its Winter Light Trail returns in November.
Running from November 20 to January 3, the trail will feature illuminations across both The Garden and Lilidorei, alongside festive soundscapes, installations and interactive elements.
Father Christmas will also return to his Lilidorei grotto, with breakfast events on selected December dates. Other events include a Christmas Fair, festive afternoon teas, wreath making and a festive menu at The Treehouse. Tickets are on sale now.
Northern Lights turns back time for Christmas
Sticking with the subject of winter lights, Newcastle’s Northern Lights trail has revealed what visitors can expect when it returns to Leazes Park from November 20 to December 31.
This year’s mile-long trail is themed A Christmas Time Machine, with giant Slinky, kaleidoscope and Rubik’s Cube-inspired installations among the attractions.
The historic bandstand will become a 1960s-inspired Lava Lamp Lane, while young patients from the Great North Children’s Hospital are helping create a giant Christmas catalogue featuring their drawings of classic toys. Tickets on sale here.
The Light switches seasons
There’s more illumination on the way in Durham, as the city’s newest cultural venue, The Light, has unveiled its autumn and winter programme.
Thursday evenings will feature live music, creative workshops, talks, a book club and a monthly social for the North East’s creative community, while families are catered for with half-term activities and regular Sensory Saturdays.
The venue is also launching After Dark, bringing together exhibitions, music, performance, food and installations on the first Friday of each month, with artists Tine Bech and Liz West and Neon Workshops curating the first three events.
More than 5,000 people visited The Light during its opening week. More information and booking here.
Abbey festival promises enduring memories
Hexham Abbey Festival is an old stager among North East cultural festivals but it’s a sprightly one, as you’ll see by the programme for this year’s 74th edition which runs from September 23-27.
It might seem odd to begin at the end and with an event that’s due to take place not in the historic abbey but in the Forum Cinema nearby.
But the eye is drawn to the screening on the 27th (it’s a Sunday, 2pm) of South: Sir Ernest Shackleton’s Glorious Epic of the Antarctic.
The recently restored film, telling of Ernest Shackleton’s daring but ill-fated 1914 expedition to Antarctica, is billed as one of the greatest survival stories in the history of exploration.
£10,000 boost for South Shields arts project
A community arts project bringing together residents in two South Shields wards has secured almost £10,000 to continue its work.
These Streets, commissioned by The Cultural Spring and led by artist and producer Louie Ingham, has been working with people in Simonside and Rekendyke to create art, music, food and events rooted in the two communities.
A £9,903 grant from the Community Foundation North East’s Belong North East Fund will allow the project to continue for another three months, including a new programme of weekly sessions at St Jude’s Church Hall in Rekendyke. Read more
North East theatres make their mark beyond the stage
Two Newcastle theatres have been named as finalists in the inaugural Great British Theatres Awards.
Live Theatre and Gosforth Civic Theatre are both shortlisted in the Great Public Space category, which recognises venues which have made imaginative use of spaces beyond their auditoriums.
Live Theatre is nominated for its community garden, while Gosforth Civic Theatre is recognised for its café. They are up against Polka Children’s Theatre in London and Storyhouse in Chester.
The awards have been launched by Theatres Trust as part of its 50th anniversary celebrations, with nearly 200 nominations received from theatres, cultural organisations and communities across the country.
Winners will be announced at Central Hall Westminster on November 2, when an overall Great British Theatre 2026 will also be chosen.
Restaurant Week is back on the menu in North Tyneside
North Tyneside Restaurant Week will return from October 5-11, with restaurants, pubs and cafés across the borough offering set-price menus at £15, £20 and £25.
The Gibraltar Rock in Tynemouth is among the first venues confirmed, alongside Turknaz in Whitley Bay, The Salthouse in Cullercoats, Kaycho in Wallsend and The Sportsman in North Shields.
More participating venues are due to be announced in the coming weeks. More info on the website.
In related news, the Great North Run Fringe programme includes a special edition of NE1 Restaurant Week, running (sorry) until September 14.
Future plans for Durham World Heritage Site
A new management plan for Durham Castle and Cathedral is set to go before councillors next week.
Durham County Council’s Cabinet will be asked to endorse the vision and objectives of the World Heritage Site Management Plan, which has been drawn up following public consultation.
It sets out four areas of focus – conservation, sharing, regeneration and research – and could also feed into wider regeneration and tourism plans for Durham.
The castle and cathedral became the first UK cultural heritage site to join UNESCO’s World Heritage List in 1986.
