If there’s one thing we do well in Teesside, it’s a festival, and Between The Tides is one of the best! The family festival is back this summer and will be making waves in a new location. So if you want something free, fantastic and full to the brim of activities and things to do, look no further than this festival.
Take a look at this blog post to find out all the details you need for Between The Tides 2025 and start planning your visit.
What is Between The Tides?
Between The Tides is a fun and free family-friendly festival in Redcar. It’s always a fantastically mixed bag with theatre, puppetry, circus, dance, storytelling, live music and more. It’s now in its third year and returning bigger and better than ever! For 2025, the festival is moving to Kirkleatham where it’ll take over the museum and gardens for Bank Holiday weekend.
As well as mesmerising performances, there are also playful installations to enjoy like the Giant’s Picnic, the Imagination Playground or the incredible Babylon Gamelon. Or you can get involved with a free workshop, like animal mask making or doing some dancing as a family.
When is Between The Tides 2025?
Between The Tides is on Saturday 23rd and Sunday 24th 2025. It’ll be a great way to spend the August Bank Holiday weekend with family!
Where is the festival held?
For the first two years of Between The Tides, the festival was held on the seafront. But in 2025, the festival is moving to Kirkleatham Museum & Gardens (Redcar, TS10 5NW).
Where can I park?
Car parking for Between The Tides is FREE on the Kirkleatham Showground. Please see the map below!
If you are coming from Redcar, enter via Kirkleatham Lane – the first entrance NOT the museum entrance. If you are driving in via the A174, drive past the first entry marked for the museum, go straight over the roundabout and take the next turning on the right marked Kirkleatham Village.
Disabled parking can be found at Kirkleatham Walled Garden. Please note, there is no general parking for festival goers here.
Is Between The Tides accessible?
Paths around the museum and gardens are flat. The museum itself has three floors and is completely accessible for wheelchair users with a lift. Guide dogs and hearing dogs are welcome to visit the museum too.
Disabled parking can be found at Kirkleatham Walled Garden, and toilets and baby changing facilities can be found at the gardens and museum separately. Additional toilets can be found near the stage in car park 1 at the museum.
The Luminarium is wheelchair accessible but prams and pushchairs must be left in the Buggy Park.
What is The Luminarium?
The Luminarium is an incredible installation of amazing saturated light tunnels and domes to explore. This year’s Daedelum Luminarium takes inspiration from Daedalus, the father of Icarum and the architect of the labyrinth of King Minos of Crete. Daedalum’s core element is a maze of 19 egg-shaped domes whose spatial arrangement creates mysterious sight-lines.
The Main Dome features an innovative indirect illumination that varies the colour inside according to the dome’s position and the sun’s direction. The 600-piece pattern of the Main Dome ceiling was inspired by Rome’s Pantheon and the Gustave Doré drawing of angels circling heavenward in Dante’s paradise.
There is a small charge for this experience – children are £3.50, adults from Redcar & Cleveland are £3.50, and all other adults are £5.50. I’d recommend buying your tickets in advance or you can buy them on the day.
What’s on at Between The Tides Festival?
The programme for the festival is absolutely chockfull of things to see and do, and all free! (Barring the small charge for The Luminarium). Here are some of my highlights:
- The Rainbow Butterfly – Ella Mesma Company – The Rainbow Butterfly is an immersive and imaginative show that celebrates how unique we all are using creativity, carnival, aerial circus, beatbox, and hip hop dance to help Maja fly creatively all the way to the moon.
- Choogh Choogh – Beeja – All aboard for a delightful train journey through India. Experience the sights, sounds and smells evoked through South Asian dance, music and theatre, and meet some amazing characters along the way.
- Babylon Gamelon – Rag and Bone – An incredible four metre high mechanical sound sculpture that invites you to pull, push, strum and drum. Forget ‘Don’t Touch’ – this is all about making as much noise as you can!
- Tape That – Hands Down Theatre – Two acrobats and a suitcase full of tape. Prepare to be amazed at the circus skills and creativity of Hands Down Theatre. Juggling, clowning and some spectacular acrobatics in this colourful and hugely entertaining show.
- Seaside Stories – Lady Lemon Top – Discover Kirkleatham Café’s Secret Garden and you’ll find the whimsical Lady Lemon Top. Created by Greener Lavelle in conjunction with the young people from the Festival Club, Lady Lemon Top will be weaving magical tales of local folklore. Look out for her on walkabout too!
- The Spellcasters – Three weird and wordy witches are weaving spells in the woods, enchantments to cast happiness over the whole world – but which ingredients should they use? Help them come up with the perfect recipe for their poetic potions by telling them what you’ve found to make you happy at this year’s festival. A pinch of your favourite moments will bring their spell to life!
- Party Animal Silent Disco – Urban Kaos – Go wild at the woodland rave! Grab a pair of headphones and dance yourself dizzy with Urban Kaos. The Silent Disco features a soundtrack chosen by young people in Redcar.
- Bug Creation Workshop – Pop-Up Cardboard Museum of Natural History from the Future – Build your own beastie for the museum with Hollie Notman and Kat Lynas. A hands-on, family friendly activity, using paper, scissors and a dollop of imagination, help to fill a Cardboard Pop-Up Museum with insects before it tours Middlesbrough and Redcar and Cleveland this Autumn. Whether it’s a giant glitter butterfly or a peaceful paper moth, these creations will all become part of this exciting pop up exhibition.
Are dogs allowed at Between The Tides?
Well-behaved dogs are allowed in the outdoor spaces at the festival, including in Kirkleatham Gardens. Guide dogs and hearing dogs are welcome in the museum. There are no dogs allowed inside the Luminarium, so if you have a guide dog, the festival stewards will organise an alternative way for you to be accompanied.
This is going to be an absolute blast of a free festival, so don’t miss out! Get Saturday 23rd and Sunday 24th August in your diaries, and head to Kirkleatham Museum to join in the fun.
If you still have any more questions, please take a look at the Between The Tides Festival page.
This post is sponsored by Redcar & Cleveland Council.