folkestone live – celebrating theatre and comedy in a festival

Folkestone Live is our answer to the Edinburgh Fringe Festival.  A celebration of theatre and comedy spanning three days from 19th to 21st September 2025.  There will be nearly 30 performances with local and national actors, writers and performers involved. Lucy Trodd, leading the Folkestone Improv Jam on Saturday night, talks Folkelife through the event.

“I came along last year as a member of the audience, so it’s great to be involved in the performances this year.  It’s a wonderful celebration of theatre and comedy and fills a gap in the festival programme we have in Folkestone. Theresa Burns is the power behind the festival.  She set it up last year with Sasha Ravencroft and Michèle Rowland who are the other directors.  What they’ve done is to set up a festival that not only has new work from local writers, directors and performers, but also have invited performances from other Fringe events around the country so that we can experience those too.”

something for everyone

“There are children’s shows, grown-up shows, and everything running from Friday 19th to Sunday 21st September.  The Folkestone Improv Fitties are doing a show, and some of my students are doing other shows across the weekend too.  

“This really champions theatre and does something that we don’t have in Folkestone: it’s focusing on and supporting new writing.  We have venues that can bring in big names, and stand-up comedians, but not somewhere that gives writers and actors an opportunity to showcase original, new work.”

we have an audience

“I can remember going to a few events last year and then going to the pub afterwards with a crowd of people, all of us speaking the same language.  It was fantastic to join in with others who have this love of theatre, and just want to experience it on our doorstep.

“There’s a lot to experience too, and we don’t want to be prohibitive in terms of cost, so there’s a ‘no questions asked’ £5 ticket, and the prices go up from there. “

magic to shakespeare

“There’s a variety of performances on offer.  It’s like a big fringe festival in that the performances are around an hour long, with 15 minutes to clear everyone out before the next act takes place.  We’re working from The Burstin in three different parts of the hotel, and at The Old Cigar and Olive in town. 

“I’ve been looking through the programme with my teenage son to see what he’d like to come along to, and then there’s my wish list too. 

“I really like Michele Sheldon who’s a local playwright.  Her show is Sewage: Most Definitely Not A Musical, and I really want to see that.  She’s working as part of the Triennial piece, The Ministry of Sewers down at Folkestone Harbour at the moment.  This is a political comedy looking at the history of how we have treated water, and the impact it’s having today.  Her play ‘Fleecehold’ was about the three women who set up the National Leasehold Campaign to support leaseholders in property.  It was really interesting, and theatre is an important way to explain complex ideas.”

Folkestone Live runs from 19th to 21st September 2025 and tickets can be booked here.