GENFest Youth Takeover Festival

For the last 4 years we have had the absolute pleasure of hosting GENFest, Art31’s annual Youth Takeover Festival.  However, in 2025 we have made the decision to not host GENFest.

GENFest was always designed to be a festival made for young people, by young people, where local 13–25-year-olds got to make all the key decisions about the festival. After 4 years, GENFest had become such a well-honed machine that there was very little left to decide or influence. We’ve therefore decided to look for new ways to work with local young people with more impact and fresh creativity.  

This hasn’t been an easy decision and know there may be some disappointment. However, we are hoping to have more opportunities to get involved with throughout the year whilst we shift and shape our new young people’s offer, making sure it reflects the genuine needs, wants and ideas of our local young people.  

If you are a group, school or young person who has previously (or was hoping to) take part in GENFest 2025, please get in touch to say hello! We want to make sure we stay connected and hope to get you involved with our programme this year.  We’d love to add you to our Art31 mailing list, so you can keep in the loop with all the opportunities and updates for this year, if you would like to be added to this, send us an email to creativeengagement@kent.ac.uk  

If you are a young person, school or group of young people and would like to help get involved with shaping Art31 Generate and our young people’s creative offer, we’d love to hear from you.  

Our email is creativeengagement@kent.ac.uk  

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What is GENFest? 

GENFest is a free festival curated by and for 13-25 year olds, celebrating young people’s creativity and giving a platform to young creative voices in Kent.

The programme showcases up-and-coming local creatives and usually features a mix of live theatre, dance, music and stand-up comedy, plus short film screenings and an art exhibition.

There is also a whole host of free artist-led workshops as well as networking sessions where young creatives and professionals can connect.

There are many ways that you could get involved such as;

• Showcasing your own performance at Gulbenkian Theatre
• Performing on the Music Stage
• Making and showcasing your film in our Cinema
• Submitting Art to our Art Exhibit
• Taking part in Artist Lead workshops, eg. Graffiti, Songwriting, Linocutting!