Festivals & Events

NewcastleGateshead Initiative has developed a huge expertise in the development, delivery, marketing and promotion of festivals and events as a foundation to its destination marketing.

Our Culture Team develop, produce and market high quality events such as the Winter Festival, EAT!, NewcastleGateshead’s Festival of Food and Drink, Juice, the Children and Young People’s Festival, Chinese New Year Celebrations, as well as continuing to develop and deliver opportunities that will arise from future initiatives such as the London 2012 Olympic Games and the FIFA World Cup 2018 bid.

The Culture Team works closely with Marketing and Communications colleagues in order to promote NewcastleGateshead as a vibrant cultural destination and distinctive place to live.

The recently established Cultural Advisory Board works closely with the Culture Team at NewcastleGateshead Initiative to develop and promote the full cultural offer across NewcastleGateshead.

Key Projects and Ambitions:

The key ambition of the Cultural Vision for NewcastleGateshead is to build on the past decade’s significant investment of £200m in the cultural infrastructure.

The Cultural Vision sets out the overarching direction and goals for the cultural development of NewcastleGateshead across the next 20 years.

The vision aims to engage the local population to participate in culture, while inviting the world to NewcastleGateshead; ensure NewcastleGateshead is the city of choice for artists to live, learn, work and produce work; establish NewcastleGateshead as a year-round cultural centre with a world-class festivals and events programme based on our iconic locations and the river; and to become a world leader in cultural education and learning.