Bookings are now live for more than 100 events covering music, art, heritage, comedy and family entertainment that have been registered as part of this year’s Worthing Festival.

Local creatives, businesses and community groups have jumped on board the town’s summertime celebration of arts and culture, which runs from 8th to 23rd June.

Along with the support of local artists, performers and businesses, the festival’s organisers have been working to ensure this year’s festival, as well as future installations, continue to develop beyond its successful first outing. This will be the second Worthing Festival, with the first hosted last June. It’s estimated that the debut festival brought more than 14,000 visitors to the town over nine days.

The Worthing Festival was inspired through conversations between Worthing Borough Council and the town’s arts community, who were looking for a way to celebrate the wealth of local creative talent. A multi-arts festival was decided upon and brought to life by Time for Worthing, the council’s official tourism arm.

Following the inaugural festival, it was decided to make this year’s celebration longer to not only allow more events to take place, but provide event organisers with the opportunity to spread their performances or activities out. To address feedback from last year, colourful festival-themed bunting and banners are also being produced to support this and future festivals with a greater in-town presence.

Once the festival is well established, it’s hoped that it can be owned, developed and delivered by the local creative community moving forward.

Cllr Rita Garner, Worthing’s cabinet member for culture and leisure, said: “It was fantastic to see how well last year’s festival was received, and this has been great motivation for our team of organisers to put the foundations in place for an equally brilliant celebration of arts and culture to be held this year.

“We’d like to thank everyone who has got involved with the fun and registered an event as part of Worthing Festival ‘24. Now we need everyone to come out, support local talent and business and enjoy everything that Worthing has to offer. June can’t come soon enough.”

To see the events list and find out more on this year’s Worthing Festival, visit: https://timeforworthing.uk/worthing-festival/

For the latest details on the Worthing Festival, follow its new dedicated social media accounts on Facebook, Instagram and X.