Take Five: Weston Arts + Health Festival

19 June 2025

Get ready for a beach take-over as the highly anticipated “Take Five: Weston Arts + Health Festival” returns for a sixth year, promising an exciting and inclusive programme of free creative wellbeing events in Weston from Thursday, July 10th to Sunday, July 13th, 2025.

The festival is set to transform the iconic Weston shoreline with free performances, hands-on workshops, and engaging activities taking place in the Festival Hub, a beautiful stretch-tent on the beach, adjacent to Revo Kitchen, Weston-super-Mare, BS23 1BE.

The festival celebrates the breadth of the creative health offerings across the region, with the beach welcoming a wide range of activities designed to help people connect, participate, and celebrate. Visitors can take part in a range of creative activities that include mindful photography walks, poetry, singing, paper crafting and dancing.

This year’s festival will highlight the diverse communities that enrich the hospital and town. Attendees can join a guided walk exploring the “Hidden Histories of Weston” with Weston Councillor, John Crockford-Hawley. This walk offers a chance to explore Weston’s significant role in transforming mental health treatment during the Victorian Era.

Alive Activities, known for connecting care home residents with babies and parents through singing, will offer interactive storytelling sessions focused on people’s memories.

Highlights of the programme include:

• • Intergenerational Singing Workshops: Led by Alive Activities, known for their heartwarming sessions that bring together babies and care home residents.

• • Community Blanket Making: Join Hugs in the Making and Rebels Picnic to contribute to beautiful blankets using traditional ‘granny squares’.

• • Open Water Swimming Sessions: For those feeling brave enough, head to the beach for an invigorating session led by experienced Open Water Lifeguards (OWLs) Liam Giddings and Yasser Kobieh.

• • Singing for Happiness:  Join renowned Gospel Choir leader Kim Samuels on the sand and fill your lungs with sea air and song!   Includes an introduction by Creative Health researcher Kat Branch who affirms that singing really is what the doctor ordered.

• • Learn to balance on the high wire!: We know that lack of balance contributes to falls in older age.  Acclaimed tightwire artist Phoebe is here to bring a fun dimension to the art of balance.

• • Keralan Dance to get the heart pumping:  NHS staff are at the forefront of this brilliant Keralan dance troupe, who will lead an uplifting and participatory afternoon of movement

• • Weston Museum: Will host a new exhibition titled “Life in a Coastal Town, A creative exploration of community and belonging,” offering unique insights into the town’s identity.

• • Weston General Hospital: Will host a full day of arts and health activities, bringing the benefits of creative engagement directly to the hospital environment as part of its year round arts programme.

• • The iconic Promenade: Will be a hub of activity, welcoming samba, processions, and the wondrous Poetry Machine!

• • The Grand Pier: Will host a session on the development of a Creative Health network for North Somerset, embedding this work sustainably for current and future generations.

About Arts + Health Festival

Weston Arts + Health Festival 2025 is generously supported by funding from Bristol & Weston Hospitals Charity and Arts Council England.  Additional support is also gratefully received from Arts and Humanities Research Council and Bristol University (as part of Coastal Community and Creative Health programme), Alliance Homes, West of England Mayoral Combined Authority and Alive Activities. We’re also proud to collaborate with The Other Place — home to Race Equality North Somerset — and the Diverse Artists Network, presenting events and activities that support the town’s Many Cultures, One Community campaign.