We’re back! Welcome to the Folkestone Living Advent Calendar 2022! Every night at 6pm from December 1st to Christmas Eve JimJam Arts will be transforming Folkestone into a LIVING ADVENT CALENDAR with a different door opening to reveal a surprise LIVE PERFORMANCE.
After two long years of Covid and Lockdown, we’re delighted to be back. This year we’ve got some wonderful surprises for you behind each and every door. We’re also going slightly further afield to spread the festive goodwill to more parts of town.
As ever, we will have a mix of community and professional performances with dance, drama, music and more, plus some really exciting new innovations, too! Each performance lasts from 20-30 minutes and Lady Christmas will be back to welcome you and lead the countdown to the door opening at 6pm each evening.
How it all began
At JimJam Arts we’re really delighted that the Living Advent Calendar has become such a firm Folkestone favourite.
It all started back in 2015 with a little sparkle of an idea from Stockholm in Sweden. Here each evening a different window in the city opens in the run up to Christmas for a short story and musical performance. We thought it was a brilliant idea but we could take it a little further and make it Folkestone’s own. So we decided on doors rather than windows. On a mix of community and professional performances and a very special surprise each evening whether it’s music, dance, drama, opera, puppetry or something completely different. We introduced our own Mother Christmas to compère each evening and lead the countdown to the door opening and another festive surprise.
Folkestone Harbour Arm
Reaching the community
We wanted to reach all parts of the community so we asked local community groups and organisations what they would like to do and how we could help them achieve it. So we’ve run workshops in everything from animation and puppetry to sculpture, singing and dance.
Helping local Charities
Each evening we collect for a different local charity which has a chance to tell the audience a bit about their work. All the entertainment and workshops are free which is thanks to generous funding and support this year from the Big Lottery Reaching Communities Fund and the Creative Folkestone Festivals Fund.
Advent Calendar Workshops for 2022
Join our Christmas Eve Choir.
Details of how to be part of the last night’s performance will be here soon or on the Folkestone Living Advent Calendar Facebook page or register your interest by emailing JimJam Arts
Folkestone’s Festive Spirit
So that’s been our part in the making of the Folkestone Living Advent Calendar but none of it would happen without the help of our wonderful volunteers and the goodwill and very special festive spirit of the people of Folkestone. Huge thanks for all your help and support and a very Merry Christmas to everyone!
JimJam Arts
We started JimJam Arts back in 2010 having worked together on productions on our degree course in Performing Arts at Canterbury Christchurch’s Folkestone campus. We were commissioned by Shepway Council to run three family events in the Lower Leas Coastal Park. Eight years on they were still going strong! Our aim in JimJam Arts is to make theatre and the arts accessible for everyone. We strive to not only entertain our audiences, but inspire and involve them in all our projects. Some of these include Word on the Street playwriting and Drama Workshops, the Happiness Bank, Folkestone’s first Street Festival, Pirate Party in the Park, Alice in the Coastal Park and several seasons of Shakespeare in the Park with Illyria Theatre Company. The Living Advent Calendar feels like a culmination of all our work so far.
