Just So Festival Announce First Line Up Announced
The Just So Festival has announced the first additions to its 2022 programme.
The Just So Festival, the family festival returns for a weekend of mischief, magic and mayhem in the great outdoors for 2022.
Returning to Rode Hall Estate in Cheshire the family arts festival will run from Friday 19 – Sunday 21 August 2022 and offer the chance for families (from bumps to great-grandparents) to step out of their day-to-day lives and into a world of arts, literature, theatre, dance, music, comedy and creative pursuits together.
Check out our review of last years event here.
Organisers have announced the first additions to the festival programme and it’s full of everything from hip-wiggling live music to jaw-dropping outdoor arts.
The music line-up includes raucous band Hope & Social, vocalist and percussionist Kweku of Ghana with his band K.O.G & the Zongo Brigade, São Paulo’s finest street band Theo Mizú & Banda, and more.
There’ll be outdoor arts performances including the feline-themed circus Street Cat Strut, impressive aerial show The Swings, and an acrobat will float above the festival suspended beneath a giant balloon in the enchanting Heliosphere.
Theatre performances include The Adventures of Madame Carol Sell and Mr Popsy, a Makaton-friendly pantomime from Tall Tails Theatre Company, and hilarious improvised comedy This Is Your Trial in which the audience put their friends and family in the docks.
And Just So wouldn’t be the same without its finest traditions, from the fiercely competitive Carnival of the Animals to the magical midnight feast.
Image Credit Samuel Mills
Further programming will be announced in the coming months and will include even more of the very best in live music, theatre, circus and dance, storytelling, author readings and poetry workshops, film classics, games and creative pursuits, wellbeing sessions, and much, much more.
Image Credit Chrissie Wild Photography
The festival layout is also having a shake-up with the introduction of some brand new areas for its twelfth year, including The Inky Deep full of aquatic antics and fishy goings-on. It joins beloved festival areas such as The Spellbound Forest, home of the legendary Just So campfire, Footlights where you can find brilliant live bands, and Peekaboo with activities for the tiniest Just So-ers.
Sarah Bird, Co-Director of Wild Rumpus, says:
‘We really mean it when we say that Just So is for the whole family. It’s not about parents sitting on the sidelines – everyone gets stuck in and makes memories together. We love it when we see full families playing in nature and the adults are enjoying themselves just as much as the kids. When audiences engage together in the highest quality arts in the great outdoors, something quite amazing can happen.’
She added: ‘I’m really proud of what we’ve announced so far for Just So 2022. I’m particularly looking forward to dancing to the wonderful Hope & Social and seeing the aerial tricks of The Swings, and then having a go myself!’
Rowan Cannon, Co-Director of Wild Rumpus, says:
‘Just So has a real magic that doesn’t exist anywhere else. There’s something so special about being allowed to stay up late for a midnight feast, hearing unbelievable stories as you sit around a crackling campfire, or watching your dad pull out his best moves to a live band. It’s somewhere kids can really be kids and the normal rules of everyday life are thrown out the window!’
She added: ‘I’m so excited for this year’s programme – I can’t wait to see people’s faces as they watch the giant Heliosphere balloon soaring above the treetops, or the mischievous Street Cat Strut circus show.’
Just So Festival returns for its 12th year from Friday 19 until Sunday 21 August 2022 see here.
Plus you can check out review of the Just So Festival 2021 here.
