Over nine months, the Animating Ashington programme brought new energy, spectacle and creativity into Ashington town centre and its surrounding communities. Commissioned by Northumberland County Council and delivered by Walk the Plank, the project aimed to connect local people, boost footfall and create moments of delight across different seasons.
Walk the Plank brought us on board to capture the larger events in the programme documenting performances, participation, reactions and atmosphere. Below is a deeper look at each event, what they meant, and how we turned it all into visual storytelling for stakeholders, funders and local audiences.
Kicking things off- The Christmas Toy Procession
The programme commenced in November of 2024 with the Toy Procession which also tied into the Christmas Light switch on in Ashington.
Thousands of the community attended the event which ran several times through the afternoon and early evening.
The parade included an array of performers in this delightful spectacle with trumpet playing santas, elves, a robot on stilts, Christmas crackers and more.
We also interviewed members of the community and local councillor Caroline Ball who were all blown away by the first day’s events.
The video we produced shows how the parade set the tone for Animating Ashington creating intrigue, drawing in local residents and building momentum for the rest of the programming.
Here’s our first video capturing the afternoon and evenings events:
Light Nights
At the end of January, Light Nights brought a new energy to Ashington’s evenings. The project stretched across two nights and featured pop-up interactive drumming and movement spectacles, working with international street performance collective Spark! LED drummers.
Station Road and the surrounding estate spaces were activated by lighting, choreography and special effects placed close to community homes literally “right to your front door,” as Walk the Plank put it.
As part of our filming, we took care to:
- Show progression from daytime into illuminated installations
- Film performer interventions in unexpected places (e.g. street corners, between houses)
- Capture audience engagement, how locals responded to the performers dropping in on their community streets for a thriving atmosphere
The final film gives a sense of how even in winter darkness, creativity can invite new ways of perceiving a town and how public space can feel reimagined for a few magical hours.
Not only did we produce an overview film but also a teaser for social media. Check them both out below:
Feast of Fire
Moving into spring, Feast of Fire (sometimes called Feast of Fire Garden) transformed Hirst Park into a flame-lit garden experience with immersive spectacle. The programming included burning bulrushes, floral fire arches, flaming lotus flowers, local music and food. Walk the Plank partnered with Full Circle to diversify food and cultural elements, reflecting the town’s communities through taste, aroma and performance.
For our coverage, the filming priorities were:
- Capturing the ambient glow of fire features and how they contrasted with the dark backdrop
- Performer-led moments and how they moved through sculptural fire installations
- Audience proximities, reactions and how people navigated the space
- Mood, soundscape, shifting light, reflections, and transitional areas
There was also drone footage of the events to capture the trail from the sky.
One Amazing Day
The One Amazing Day event turned Ashington’s town centre into a day long festival of performance, interactivity and creative surprise. Featuring a carnival of music, street performance, arts and crafts, plus whimsical elements like a giant animatronic tortoise or a hypochondriac hippopotamus with a toothache stopping passers-by. There were also “have-a-go” participatory features: a Try Not Buy arts market and hip hop dancing.
Our approach was to capture the variety of things on offer from big visual acts to small spontaneous interactions. The resulting video reflects a festival-like energy, with enough pacing to give viewers a feel for how the town centre pulsed with creativity that day.
Powering the Future
The Animating Ashington programme came to a close with Powering the Future, the final event in a remarkable ten-month run. It was a bright, busy day that brought the whole town together to celebrate creativity, community and local pride.
As one organiser put it on the day, “They’ve not introduced the arts and the culture here before, and that’s what Animating Ashington has been all about.”
The Powering the Future event transformed Station Road into a community fairground atmosphere. Stalls, performances, and activities spread through the centre, drawing in residents from every part of the town. The sunshine didn’t hurt either as one attendee put it.
Our filming focused on the sense of conclusion and community celebration capturing the flow of the parade through Station Road, the colour and energy of performers, and the faces of the people who made it possible. Interviews from organisers and residents added a layer of reflection, showing how far things had come since the first event back in December.
The finished video tells a story of gratitude, participation, and pride a town rediscovering its cultural heartbeat and coming together to celebrate it.
Animating Ashington: Wrapped Up
To close the programme, we produced a wrap-up film that captures the essence of Animating Ashington seen through the eyes of the people who made them happen and the thousands who came out to take part.
Rather than a highlights reel, the film acts as a record of what’s possible when creative investment meets genuine community involvement. It shows how public art can bring people together, revitalise shared spaces and leave a legacy that outlasts the event itself.
We worked closely with the Walk the Plank team to ensure the film would do more than summarise; it had to show the value.
For funders and partners, it’s a clear demonstration of impact for community participation, engagement, and pride all visible on screen. For the people of Ashington, it’s a reminder of what can happen when creativity takes root locally.
Why This Matters & What It Shows
Animating Ashington is part of Regenerating Ashington, a broader strategy to “grow, renew and connect the town.” It’s funded through UK Shared Prosperity Fund and the North East Combined Authority, with Northumberland County Council as the commissioning body.
This work shows that local culture and arts can do more than entertain they can stimulate footfall and support local businesses, foster social cohesion, reframe how people see their daily space and offer funders a visible return on investment (in engagement, social value, narrative impact)
For us, as filmmakers, it’s a chance to create films that live in context, not just documentation. The videos become part of the project legacy.
If you want to explore commissioning a video for the arts and culture sector or need to dazzle some stakeholders, find out more on our service page or get in touch.
Leave A Comment