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"The festival will help reanimate the high-street and give shoppers something different to experience when they return. It has been wonderful to see the businesses working together in support of br...

"The festival will help reanimate the high-street and give shoppers something different to experience when they return. It has been wonderful to see the businesses working together in support of bring customers back to the town centre safely."

A new and exciting indie festival bringing small business and the creative community together will take place in Royal Leamington Spa town centre from May 1st to 31st.

Creative Leamington have partnered with local retailers and businesses to create an exhibition of some of the best local young talent from Leamington, Coventry and Warwickshire.

The public will be able to experience artwork showcased in shop windows and interact via QR codes linking to a new dedicated website and interactive map. The website, developed by emerging tech company Blunt and Brave, will also provide shoppers with an opportunity to redeem voucher codes and offers in collaboration with the shops and spaces involved, creating a map of businesses that provided both artistic engagement and opportunities to shop.

The festival, funded by Warwickshire County Council's Town Centres Tech Challenge, is designed to support businesses in their recovery from the pandemic by increasing footfall in the town centre. It will see the occupied and vacant retail window spaces turn into an open air art gallery for the public to experience whilst they shop and hopefully lead people to retailers they may not have come across before.

Stacy O'Connor, Warwickshire County Council's Digital Creative Lead, said: "We are really excited to see the Local Young Talent Festival come together. This innovative project will provide new, young talent with a platform and audience they didn't have before whilst supporting existing businesses to increase their footfall.

"The festival will help reanimate the high-street and give shoppers something different to experience when they return. It has been wonderful to see the businesses working together in support of bring customers back to the town centre safely."

The festival will also shine a light on sustainability and how we can make things beautiful in a way that “does not cost us the earth” by creating window displays in partnership with students from Leamington Spa College and Warwick University, mentored by industry experts from TonyG and CBGC Industries.

Local musicians will be showcased in the LYT Festival Sound Space at Nash White while visual artwork can also be found in shops such as Cenu Cacao, Rustic Food Co, Core, Basement Browns, Spa Town Coffee, Zero Store, Indigo, Freshly Ground Ink

Each shop will showcase a different artist across several artforms including Illustration, Fashion Design, poetry and painting with work from artists such as Gemma Grao, a contemporary artist based in Leamington Spa, TV Trev, a Black British photographer, film maker and community leader, and Jodie Fern, a jewellery designer inspired by the architecture and art of the places she visits whilst travelling.

The festival will also bring a taste of AR technology via a collaboration with local tech company RiVR, which will take over an empty retail unit in Royal Priors Shopping Centre.

LYT FESTIVAL, powered by Creative Leamington in collaboration with Blunt & Brave, is sponsored by Warwickshire County Council and supported by our local partners: BID Leamington, Wareing & Co, Royal Priors Shopping Centre, WCG Leamington Spa College, RiVR and the University of Warwick’s Creative Futures Incubator

More information and a full list of artists and local businesses involved can be found at www.lytevents.co.uk.

 

Published: 6th May 2021

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