Culture Digest 21.11.25
A round up of the arts and culture stories which caught our attention over the past week or so...
Another ‘acciduurnt’ waiting to happen at Theatre Royal
David Whetstone reports on two decades of perfectly planned panto chaos at the top of Grey Street
Beaming down from the Theatre Royal’s seasonal panto banners are four familiar faces – those of comedy double act Danny and Clive, panto dame Chris Hayward and singer Joe McElderry.
For Danny and Clive (Adams and Webb respectively: different surnames, same lineage being father and son, though not in that order), this year’s Aladdin is a notable achievement.
It’s their 20th Theatre Royal panto in succession (and the landmark would have been reached last year had it not been for the Covid theatre shutdown in 2020).
Nobody could have predicted that marathon run, surely not even theatre genius Michael Harrison who saw them in Stoke and hired them as the comedy element of the panto he was to produce in Newcastle the following season.
Big 2026 music announcements for Tyne and Wear
A duo of significant music announcements have landed for the North East’s 2026 calendar.
BBC Radio 1 has confirmed that Big Weekend will take place in Sunderland from May 22–24, returning to Herrington Country Park for the first time since 2005.
The three-day festival, which moves location each year, typically brings around 100 artists ranging from global headliners to emerging acts. Last year North Shields’ Sam Fender headlined the event in Liverpool.
Meanwhile on Tyneside, In The Park has announced Lewis Capaldi as the headline act on July 8, joining Paul Weller (July 10) on the festival bill.
Nightfall to light up Middlesbrough
Middlesbrough’s Stewart Park will once again be transformed into a glowing after-dark playground next week as light event Nightfall returns for a three-night run.
November 28-30 are the dates to note down if you want to be among the thousands to enjoy the illuminated arts trail - now a staple of the Tees Valley winter calendar - which is close to selling out.
This year’s trail, Larger in Light, has been created by Tees Valley-based arts organisation Stellar Creates and promises interactive light installations, giant illuminated creatures, a glittering outdoor silent disco and a string of imaginative after-dark moments.
Organisers reckon the remaining late-evening entries make for a perfect date night or a festive night out with friends, complete with street food under the stars and live DJs to round off the evening. It’s hard to argue.
Libraries ancient and modern unite for Books on Tyne
With thousands of stories kept safe beneath each roof, the best story this month is of Newcastle’s two contrasting city centre libraries coming together again to host one festival.
The 13th Books on Tyne Festival – lucky for readers – unites the Lit & Phil, an independent library founded 200 years ago, and the council-run City Library, opened by Queen Elizabeth II on the site of its predecessor in 2009.
Old and young, chalk and cheese in many ways, they both serve book lovers and enrich cultural life in city and region.
The programme is put together each year by Kay Easson, librarian at the Lit & Phil, and Derek Tree, publications manager for Newcastle Libraries.
Survivors of domestic abuse use art to communicate their trauma
A new exhibition opening in County Durham next week (November 25) will showcase artwork created by survivors of abuse to communicate their experiences.
Red Flags: Art as a Voice, it is described as a survivor-led initiative.
The event at Consett Heart Heritage & Arts Centre will also see the launch of Victims’ Voice Durham community interest company, which will offer help and support to sufferers.
It will feature artwork created by survivors of abuse, violence, and systemic injustice to portray the red flags which it is claimed are too often ignored.
Artwork celebrates life and courage of Mary Ann Matcham
A two-year project to honour the courage of an enslaved woman who made a new life for herself in a Tyneside town is now complete.
The unveiling has taken place of a bronze sculpture of Mary Ann Matcham, overlooking the Tyne and out to sea at North Shields.
The three-metre-high sculpture by North Shields artist Keith Barrett has been installed above the new Riverside Embankment Walkway linking the town centre with the Fish Quay.
Squeeze bring biggest-ever UK tour to Newcastle in 2026
Squeeze are heading back to the North East next autumn as part of their most ambitious UK tour to date with support from Billy Bragg.
The legendary band will play Newcastle’s O2 City Hall on November 16, bringing their Tried, Tested and Trixies Tour to the region as they prepare to release their first new studio album in eight years.
Formed by Chris Difford and Glenn Tilbrook in 1973, Squeeze are behind some of pop’s most enduring hits, including Up The Junction, Tempted and Cool For Cats, and remain a formidable live draw.
Glenn said: “The reaction to the 50th anniversary tour in 2024 was amazing. We have never sounded better and it feels really special to be looking forward to playing the biggest headline shows of our career. And having Billy Bragg on the same bill, what’s not to love!”
As on previous tours, Squeeze will support the charity Trussell, inviting fans to bring food donations to venues. £1 from every ticket will also go to grassroots music venues, a cause Glenn - now a Music Venue Trust patron - says is vital to “protect these venues and nurture the artists” at the start of their careers.
The Tried, Tested and Trixies Tour arrives in Newcastle on November 16, 2026. Tickets on sale from 9.30am on November 28 (2025, obvs).
Jazzy adds the glitz to Irish dance
Given that Ireland is home to celebrated songwriting royalty in the shape of Sinéad O’Connor, Enya, Dolores O’Riordan and more, it’s some feat to top the lot as the nation’s biggest female artist on Spotify.
But that’s exactly where international DJ Jazzy finds herself towards the end of 2025 following another breakout year that included standout sets at Glastonbury, Tomorrowland and Creamfields, as well as an eight-week residency at Ibiza’s legendary Pacha.
“That was probably my favourite thing that I’ve done show-wise this year,” reveals an artist whose diverse repertoire includes house, Eurodance and vocal trance. “It was just so special having a residency in Pacha.
She will return to Tyneside to headline Newcastle’s NX on November 28 and the 29-year-old can’t wait to tap into the energy and ambition of a region still basking in the glory of the MOBOs and Mercury Awards — with Radio One’s Big Weekend next up next year.
Discovery Museum retires long-running gallery space to make room for major revamp
The working life of a museum’s gallery is coming to an end after more than 20 years of telling the story of how people have earned a living on Tyneside.
The gallery at Newcastle Discovery Museum has explored how working life has changed over the last 300 years.
Exhibits range from a welder’s protective clothing from John Readhead Limited of South Shields in the 1970s to a National Health Insurance contribution card from 1919, belonging to William Steel of Stephen Street, Byker in Newcastle.
The Working Lives gallery will be replaced by a new exhibition space following a £193,000 award by the National Lottery Heritage Fund.
This will pay for the development of a flexible space to host high-profile temporary exhibitions.
The first exhibition in the new space will be a family exhibition next summer called Things That Go.
Making gardens for magical moths
On a sunny June morning, Susie White and her two young grandchildren opened an overnight live moth trap in the garden of her Northumberland home.
To the delight of the youngsters, what was akin to a moth selection box revealed colourful specimens with evocative names such as the pink and lime green of Elephant Hawk, the grey Poplar Hawk-moth, a sulphur yellow Brimstone Moth, its wings edged in chestnut brown triangles, a Coxcomb Prominent with its tufted punk headpiece, Garden Pebble, Green Carpet, Flame Shoulder and Latticed Heath, each with their own character and patterning.
With 38 years spent as a professional gardener and author, Susie’s mission has been to create gardens whose beauty caters for people and which also attract, feed and shelter pollinators like moths and butterflies, and a wider array of wildlife. A garden which works for all.
Now Susie has written a new book, titled The Gardener and the Moth: Planting for Moths and Butterflies, published by Saraband at £8.99. It is a follow-up to her previous recent book Second Nature: The Story of a Naturalist’s Garden, which describes how she fashioned her current plot.
Theatre marks WWII anniversary with inclusive celebration of freedom
A North East theatre will mark 80 years since the end of the Second World War with its most ambitious production yet - a large-scale celebration of “freedom, unity and inclusive national pride”.
Gosforth Civic Theatre (GCT) is taking part in Future Arts Centres’ nationwide project, Our Freedom - Then & Now, joining 60 arts venues across the UK in November for what is billed as the largest collaborative performance of its kind.
Two performances will take place at the venue on November 28, serving as its annual platform showcasing new work by performers with learning disabilities and autism.
GCT - the only arts venue in the UK founded and guided by people with learning disabilities - will welcome matinee and evening audiences to a full-length production featuring more than 60 performers.
Football heritage takes centre stage
Football and fortress are to be combined to represent the heart of Newcastle.
For centuries it has been the Castle which gave the city its name and which sits on top of the Roman fort of Pons Aelius and an Anglo-Saxon graveyard.
But more than 130 years ago a new kid on the block, Newcastle United, arrived to stake its claim.
Now the two are to forge a pairing which will see an exhibition open on Saturday (November 22) at the Castle Keep titled Brave Defence, Heraldry, History & Heart, which will run until November 30…
… Meanwhile, another city could be on to a winner with its latest museum venture.
A pop-up football museum has opened in the heart of Durham City after council grant funding.
Fans Museum CIC, which currently operates a football museum in Sunderland, has opened a similar but smaller venue in Unit 41 to 42 at Prince Bishops Place Shopping Centre.
Regionwide effort for major screen-industry skills drive
Universities across the region have joined forces with North East Screen to launch a major new initiative designed to strengthen pathways into the North East’s fast-growing film, TV and digital production sectors.
North East Screen, working in partnership with the North East Universities Screen Network (NEUSN), recently unveiled Connected Campus@NEUSN, an ambitious programme aimed at bridging the gap between academic study and the realities of working in the screen industries.
The collaboration brings together Durham, Newcastle, Northumbria, Sunderland and Teesside universities, building on the recently established Connected Campus partnership between North East Screen and The Northern School of Art.
Kerri Andrews on the joys and challenges of a walking mum
Kerri Andrews returns to Newcastle on Monday, down from her home in Peebles to get the Books on Tyne festival started at the Lit & Phil.
As walker, mother, author and academic, Kerri wears a lot of hats.
Life, she tells me on the phone, is “a juggle”, and even more balls have been in play since she took up a new post at a university in Ireland, requiring her to travel there once a week.
She and the father of their two children, aged four and seven, have also separated. A “complexity”, she acknowledges, although they still live near each other.
“Walking tends to happen in the gaps when I don’t have the children, when they’re with their dad,” she says.
“Sometimes we do walk together and that’s lovely. I really enjoy walking with the children but I’m conscious of risk and their levels of tolerance, so I do pare back the difficulty quite substantially if it’s just me.
“I could be a bit braver when it was two adults but occasionally I get to walk with friends and then we can be more adventurous.”
Students explore the ‘monumental’ in new exhibition
A new exhibition created and curated by University of Sunderland fine art students has opened at Northern Gallery for Contemporary Art (NGCA), bringing fresh perspectives to some of the gallery’s most significant works.
Monumental pairs selected pieces from the NGCA collection with new works by seven second and third-year students, who have spent the last six months examining what ‘the monumental’ means in contemporary art and wider society.
Their chosen works span public sculptural forms, vast natural landscapes, political systems and industrial heritage - from melting Icelandic glaciers and desert terrains to state structures and the miner’s cage near Easington Colliery.
Featured artists from the NGCA collection include Dan Holdsworth, John Kippin, Chad McCail, Vinca Petersen, Mark Pinder, Kelly Richardson and Daniel Silver. The student artists contributing new works are Bog Balenger, Rupa BK, Steviee Brookes, Lucy-May De Carteret, Kerry Chappell, Megan Hart and Chloeanne Maddison.
Lindisfarne dig uncovers vast early medieval cemetery
Around 100 burials have been uncovered in a decade of digs on Lindisfarne.
This year saw the last of 10 years of excavation seasons on the Northumberland island and now bone analysis will begin at Durham University to discover details of the early medieval population and their lives.
In addition to the 100 burials, the combined university and DigVentures project has resulted in 20,000 fragments of disarticulated remains spanning the 7th–11th centuries.
“Our excavations have revealed that the Lindisfarne cemetery was huge, stretching from the priory ruins down to the edge of the early harbour,” said a DigVentures spokesperson.
“Based on the extent of the cemetery, and where we now think the boundaries were, we estimate that the cemetery may hold around 3,000 individuals.”
The prehistoric North written in stone
The story of how prehistoric peoples survived and eventually thrived is written in stone.
In his latest book, Defined by Stones, Northumberland-based geologist Ian Jackson visits 50 locations in the North of England which show how the rocks of the region sustained human life.
“Prehistory and geology are inextricably linked. Our ancient ancestors’ relationship with the natural landscape was intimate,” says Ian.
“Rocks provided them with shelter, water, tools and weapons and were also the pillars of their beliefs and rituals.
“It was stone that defined our ancestors. Without it they could not hunt, farm or light fire. It was essential to their lives.”
Author and 'spirit guide' embark on coastal pilgrimage
Life’s been a bit of a whirl for South Shields writer Jake Morris-Campbell since his first book – if you set aside his 2021 poetry collection – was published in March.
Duchess brings Lilidorei’s hidden world to life with first children’s book
The Duchess of Northumberland has released the first children’s book inspired by Lilidorei, the vast magical play village at The Alnwick Garden. Amanita, the opening title in The Legends of Lilidorei series, marks the first time the attraction’s mysterious inhabitants and hidden stories have been formally explored in print.
The book follows a young girl who discovers a world “filled with magic, mushrooms, and mayhem”, offering readers a new route into the lore behind one of the region’s most visited family destinations. It is published alongside An Illustrated Guide to Lilidorei, which introduces the clans, creatures and customs that underpin the fantasy world.
Jane Northumberland said the stories predate the attraction itself. “When I began to create Lilidorei, its story and inhabitants were alive in my mind, long before the village existed in reality.
“I designed the attraction, with its winding paths and hidden houses, to encourage children to immerse themselves in their imagination. My hope is that these novels will fuel this even further.”
