Thinking of Organising an Event?
That’s excellent news and we are delighted that you are considering doing so! Thank you! Our festival theme is Above and Beyond and Royston Arts Festival 2026 will take place from Thursday 24th to Sunday 27th September. Our thinking is to focus on one main weekend partly through having a reduced committee and partly because we felt that events had been spread too thinly over two weekends in 2025. Depending on the number and date of event submissions the starting date may be brought forward at some point.
This year’s theme celebrates going above and beyond, amplifying creativity, kindness, courage and determination. From global icons to hyper-local heroes, fictional characters and historical figures the festival draws inspiration from the visual and narrative worlds of the superhero genre. Lean into the blockbuster superhero vibe, honour real-life legends, or explore mythological characters.
Building on our community spirit and enhancing community connections, we invite everyone to be part of the festival. Events, shows and exhibitions could feature comic book art, character design, gamification and cosplay, alongside arts and crafts, photography, poetry, theatre, music and dance.
Theming your event will help to increase the overall impact of the festival but is not essential and the theme is open to different interpretations.
Everyone is welcome to create and host an event for the arts festival whether it be connected to art, drama, music, workshops, dance, photography, craft or another aspect of “the Arts”. We simply ask that if you are planning on organising an event you submit your idea to us at your earliest opportunity via the form at the end of this page.
The form allows you to submit full event details when you are ready, or simply to register your idea with us and if you are at the ideas stage, one of the committee will be in touch to discuss what is needed from a compliance/insurance point of view.
Your event will be marketed by Creative Royston in our printed programme, social media and online in the run up to the festival and you can keep in touch with us on Facebook, Instagram & X as well as via this website.
To help us make the festival run smoothly, we have a timeline for Event Organisers – please have a look and note the key dates.
As in previous years, we again intend to have seed-funding available to help facilitate independently organised events. You can find the details in the application form in either Word or pdf format..
Important information about how we work can be found on our website on our Get Involved page. The About Us page and other pages also contain useful information on this subject including all our Key Documents.
The deadline for submitting events for the 2026 festival is Sunday 31st May 2026 and that deadline will also apply to applications for seed funding. If you sign up to our mailing list you will be kept up-to-date on developments for the 2026 festival.
Inclusion of all events and the allocation of seed-funding is at the discretion of the Creative Royston Management Committee (CRMC) and we should stress that the festival is primarily a local, community-based arts event.
There are a few conditions that you must agree to adhere to in order to be included in the festival. They are listed below:
Event Organiser’s Conditions
You must agree to:
• manage your event according to the law.
• provide the CRMC with details of your event (e.g. timings, venue etc) as soon as possible.
• provide details of relevant insurance at least 30 days prior to the festival.
• actively promote the Festival as a whole to your organisation’s members and the people who come to your event (and include a link to the Creative Royston website on your website where possible).
• Try to keep a record of the number of people who attend your event, encourage audience feedback and provide a very short summary of this to us. (This will help us to gain funding for the festival in future years).
It is our policy to make as many events as possible free and for all admission fees to be set at affordable levels. Although CRMC may offer advice it acts solely in the role of promoter of any events it does not directly organise and it is a condition of their participation in the festival that Event Organisers accept full responsibility for the organisation of their own event(s). This includes all responsibility for the financial management of the event(s) and CRMC will not, either wholly or individually, act as a guarantor against loss.
If you have a Google account and agree to the Event Organiser’s Conditions above and are now ready to send us full or outline details of your event, please fill out this form but before clicking the link please log in to your Google account.
If you don’t have a Google account then please complete either the Word or the pdf version (use ‘Add Text’ option to complete or ‘Draw’ to delete inappropriate response – both on top menu bar) and return by email as requested therein.