Enliven: You're Welcome: Four month programme of free events will celebrate Crawley's 75th anniversary

A highlight of the season will be a five metre-tall puppet, a larger than life visitor who will travel to different destinations across the city seeking welcome. Kicking off the celebrations will be a day of outdoor performance from some of the hottest acts at Brighton Festival 2022, including circus company Mimbre in collaboration with Disabled-led Daryl Beeton Productions, a new hip-hop musical from Middle Child, and sci-fi dance in a haulage trailer from Requardt & Rosenberg.

Funded by Crawley Town Centre BID, Arts Council England and Crawley Borough Council and produced by Creative Crawley, the season celebrates the diversity and welcoming attitude of Crawley and is part of the year-long Enliven programme.

Have you seen? Enliven Crawley was a great event - and organisers can't wait to share what's coming next |

On May 14, Brighton Festival’s Without Walls Crawley programme starts with two performances of Look Mum No Hands! from Daryl Beeton Productions and Mimbre.

Through acrobatics, theatre and movement, it tells the story of two friends, one who uses a wheelchair, growing up together and pushing the boundaries of what’s possible. Following them, 11-year-old Jasmine is on an adventure to make the world a better place, powered only by her imagination in hip-hop musical The Should Be Unicorns from Middle Child in association with Beats Bus. In the evening, a 40 foot truck will arrive from an unknown destination with a mystery shipment for Future Cargo.

As the sides roll up, an alien machine is revealed and the sci-fi dance show from Requardt & Rosenberg begins. Audiences wear headphones to connect them to the strange world inside the truck, combining large-scale spectacle with surprising intimacy.

Following on from workshops in weaving and comic strip making, Give It A Go will continue it programme of free workshops in the town centre with slapstick (28 May) with physical comedy legends Spymonkey. Artistic Director Toby Park will take participants from prat falls to stage fighting. On 25 June, founder of Leap Then Look Lucy Cran will be giving a beginners workshop in sculpture. On 30 July, award-winning artist and cartoonist Daniel Locke will be teaching how to create a comic hero.

Finally, a puppet taller than a double decker bus will be visiting the town in August. How will Crawley welcome her? Who she is and where she’s from will be revealed in May, along with a full programme of events that will run from August 11-14.

Creative Crawley is a brand new arts organisation whose Trustees represent a range of local stakeholders who aim to place creativity at the heart of Crawley and support, develop and produce high quality arts and culture in the town.

Creative Director of Creative Crawley Louise Blackwell said: "This summer, we are welcoming new and inspiring art works to share with the people of Crawley. We are rejoicing in the 75th anniversary of the New Town and the hopes and dreams of the future."

Crawley Town Centre BID is the dedicated Business Improvement District for Crawley town centre working with and for the businesses collaborating to deliver a thriving town centre where people want to be.

The Enliven programme is a year round series of artworks, performances, workshops and creative experiences which aims to bring Crawley town centre to life through arts and culture. Funded by Crawley Town Centre BID and produced by Creative Crawley.

Listings information www.creativecrawley.com | www.crawleytowncentrebid.co.ukBrighton Festival 2022: Without Walls Crawley

Saturday May 14 11.30am – 9.30pm Queens Square and Memorial Gardens. A partnership of Crawley Borough Council, Crawley Town Centre BID and Creative Crawley brings you a day of of outdoor circus, hip hop and dance performance.

11.30 & 2.30pm: Look Mum No Hands! By Daryl Beeton Productions and Mimbre Queens Square. A visually beautiful and physically surprising coming of age story about two friends testing their own boundaries.

12.15 & 3.15pm: There Should Be Unicorns by Middle Child Queens Square. Hip hop, dance and theatre collide in this brand new family show

8.30pm: Future Cargo by Requardt & Rosenberg, produced by The Place Memorial Gardens. A sci-fi dance show performed in a 40ft haulage truck.

Give It A Go: Once a month in the town centre, people can explore new creative activities completely for free in a series of drop in workshops for all ages. Free to attend, but booking recommended

28 May, 2pm – 4pm Spymonkey Slaptick workshop with Toby Town centre venue tbc. Get ready to laugh until your face hurts in this workshop with one of the UK’s leading physical comedy ensembles. Spymonkey have been making sublimely ridiculous theatre since 1998. In the Spymonkey Slapstick workshop, Joint Artistic Director Toby Park will take you through the rudiments of their physical comedy: fixed points, reactions, pratfalls, trips and stage fighting for laughs. We will look at how to build these skills to make a genius slapstick routine with a partner or group.

25 June, 2pm – 4pm Sculpture Making with Lucy Town centre venue tbc. In this workshop for beginners, Lucy Cran will take you through a series of instructions with a range of materials (cardboard tubes, sticks, foam, wood off cuts, fabric, string, tape e.g) and a set of prompts (e.g: make something as long as your arm, make something to look through, make something to help you listen, make a zigzag, make something that rolls).

When you’ve finished making, you can take a picture of your sculpture in a specially created, lit area so you can keep a record of your creations.

30 July, 2pm – 4pm Create a comic hero The Comic Shop. Join award-winning artist and cartoonist Daniel Locke as he walks you through the stages of building a unique world story and designing and illustrating an original character to occupy it.