North Herts District Council has awarded over £2,000 to support the Hitchin Festival.
The annual arts festival, which has been running for the last ten years, brings together community groups, businesses and individuals.
Hitchin Festival was launched in 1991 as a week-long programme of events, and now hosts concerts, art exhibitions, talks and theatre shows from all parts of the town for the entire month of July each year.
As part of the festival's revival, the Dell at Woodside – Hitchin's very own open air theatre, which has been out of use since 1999 – is being reopened to mark 70 years since the venue's first performance.
The £2,000 NHDC grant will go towards creating a week-long series of events, running from Saturday, July 24 to Saturday, July 31, at the Dell for the festival.
The funding will be used towards the hire of staging and technical equipment and to ensure the space remains safe and secure, with fencing and security present throughout the duration.
The event has been publicised through a crowdfunding campaign - which has so far raised more than £2,300 - to help with running costs.
The festival's chair Glyn Doggett said: “We’ve been working with Hitchin BID and many others on this project, so on behalf of all of us, we’d like to say a huge thank you to NHDC for this grant which will make a huge difference to the whole event.
"We are looking to create something long-term for the benefit of the local community and this grant will help us realise this and achieve our long-term goals.”
Cllr Judi Billing, NHDC’s executive member for community engagement, said: “In the 70th year since the creation of the Dell, and with outdoor venues seeing a resurgence because of COVID-19, there has never been a better time to see this beloved part of Hitchin restored and used again in the way it was intended.
“This year’s event will be a fantastic opportunity to work with the community to bring alive a long held dream, and hopefully start to create a vision for a longer-term plan that would see the Dell used as an outdoor theatre every summer.”
Tickets to Hitchin Festival events at the Dell and at other Hitchin venues are on sale through the festival's online box office and at the Hitchin Information Centre.
Comments: Our rules
We want our comments to be a lively and valuable part of our community - a place where readers can debate and engage with the most important local issues. The ability to comment on our stories is a privilege, not a right, however, and that privilege may be withdrawn if it is abused or misused.
Please report any comments that break our rules.
Read the rules here