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Learn more about Dover at Night – an youth-led evening festival where young people take over the town after dark. The festival – co-organised with Maison Dieu and co-curated with young people from Dover – is designed to amplify youth voice, celebrate Dover’s history and heritage, and bring the whole community together.
Back in 2024, we partnered with the Maison Dieu and over 20 community partners to inaugurate Dover at Night. The event aimed to amplify youth voice through creativity, celebrate Dover’s rich history and heritage, and encourage community participation.
It featured more than 30 creative activities across 12 venues and showcased the work of over 1,500 local schoolchildren from Samphire Academy Trust. Their artwork, projected both inside and outside buildings, reflected the values they believe are important to Dover.
Throughout the night, I saw families engaging in creativity, some who regularly pick up their art supplies, some rekindling their love for art, and others trying it out for the first time. It was clear that everyone, young and old, was having fun creating something with their community.
Building on the momentum of its 2024 debut and in partnership with the Reawakening the Maison Dieu project, Dover at Night 2025 once again transformed the town centre into a vibrant hub of creativity, attracting 5,000 visitors who came together to enjoy a celebration of art, music, and community spirit. A highlight of the 2025 event was an animation project inspired by the River Dour, created by Dover’s primary school pupils.
These animations, projected throughout the town, explored the river’s ecological and historical significance through a stained glass-inspired theme. They were brought to life through a series of free creative workshops, held in partnership with the White Cliffs Countryside Partnership, as a tribute to the Maison Dieu’s historic stained-glass windows.
The creativity, enthusiasm, and community spirit on display were truly inspiring. It’s a testament to the power of the arts to bring people together and celebrate local heritage in meaningful ways.
As part of a Creative Careers event co-organised by the ‘Reawakening the Maison Dieu’ project and EKC Dover College, young people created a mural on a car to highlight that creativity plays a crucial role in all areas of learning. The finished mural was showcased at Dover at Night.
Read more about how students from EKC Dover College transformed found materials into instruments for their Junk Band, and how this helped encourage community participation during Dover at Night.
One night, one town – so many ideas.
Dover at Night 2026 brought the town to life after dark, with 40+ free activities across 14 venues, welcoming 5,468 visitors in one night. Performances, creative workshops, projections, digital worlds, and hands‑on experiences popped up across the town, turning familiar places into something new, and led by young Dover residents.
From Summer 2025, conversations about the festival began, with young people sharing what they wanted Dover at Night to be – the vibe, the activities, the themes, and how the town should feel at night. Those ideas shaped the whole festival. Young people also co-curated the Maison Dieu Stage with artists Emma Sikora and Frazer Doyle.
Venues became part of a time‑travel story, transforming into different eras – past, present, and future – inviting everyone to explore Dover in a different way.
At the centre of the night was a giant Time Machine, which was imagined, designed, and built by students from EKC Dover College working with artist James Frost. Created in response to student‑led consultations, the Time Machine asked big questions about Dover’s past, how we live now, and what kind of future we want to build.
As people moved around Dover, they took part in a time‑travel trail, collecting secret symbols from each venue. Every symbol was a piece of the puzzle, and once they were gathered, visitors brought them back to the Time Machine to help fix it – showing that change only happens when people work together.
A huge focus of Dover at Night was imagining ecological and sustainable futures. Young people explored themes like climate, waste, materials, and how we look after our town and planet.
Across the festival, artists worked alongside young people to create work using sustainable processes, natural materials, and recycled waste – demonstrating that creativity can be powerful without harming the environment.
Young people worked closely with professional artists Eirinn Hayhow, Samara Scott, and James Frost, leading creative commissions that became key moments within the festival.
Alongside this, up to 1,000 children and young people from primary schools and community groups created drawings and animations that were projected onto Dover Town Hall, lighting up the building with young people’s ideas and imaginations.
Dover at Night 2026 was co‑organised by Artswork & Dover’s Maison Dieu. The project was supported by Arts Council England & The National Lottery Heritage Fund, and the education programme was supported by Port of Dover Community Fund & Kent Community Foundation.
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