The Good Grief Weston programme includes 'Granny Jackson's Dead', a box office hit presented by Belfast's Big Telly Theatre Company, playing on the opening night and each day of the festival. Good Grief Weston
Good Grief Weston, the festival of love and loss returns to the town in October [10 to 13] for its second edition. The event, which involves University of Bristol researchers, aims to open up conversations around death and bereavement, with honesty, compassion, joy and sometimes with humour.
Residents and visitors are invited to come together to explore love and loss in welcoming, inclusive spaces. The four-day event features a wide range of workshops, events and activities from theatre, film, talks, walks, arts & crafts and storytelling to music, cookery, movement, poetry, dance and nature across indoor and outdoor venues in the area.
The festival, which offers a mix of free and pay-what-you-decide events, that are bookable in advance or available as drop-in, participatory sessions, provides a curated range of events for people to connect, talk and discover new support systems.
This year, the festival which is produced by Super Culture in association with the University and the Weston-super-Mare Community Network, as part of its national Coastal Community & Creative Health project, will extend to communities in North Somerset.
Good Grief Weston is inspired by the award-winning Good Grief Festival, started in 2020 by Bristol's Professor Lucy Selman and Dr Lesel Dawson. Since its launch the virtual festival has reached over 30,000 people through a programme of free events and its YouTube Channel, The Grief Channel.
Professor Selman from the University's Bristol Medical School said: "We are delighted to bring this unique festival back to the area this year to open up conversations about grief, loss and the end of life. The community response to Good Grief has been amazing to witness, with many heartwarming stories shared of the first Good Grief Weston, and more and more local organisations and individuals keen to get involved this year. The festival offers so many different ways of exploring love and loss – we hope it inspires and entertains, as well as bringing people together and providing support and solace."
Fiona Matthews, creative director at Super Culture, added: "This year, Weston General Hospital will be a new centre for some of the Good Grief Weston activity and once again we are partnering with Alliance Homes on seeding new provision that responds to needs out in the community. From further afield, we welcome an inspirational line-up of renowned medics, therapists and writers who are sure to catalyse engrossing conversation, and for a light-hearted and futuristic tone, don't miss what promises to be an unforgettable Irish wake for Granny Jackson of Graham Road!"
The Good Grief Weston programme includes 'Granny Jackson's Dead', a box office hit presented by Belfast's Big Telly Theatre Company, playing on the opening night and each day of the festival. The audience are invited into the heart of an Irish wake, recreated in a Weston house, that explores the impact of technology on the grief process in an innovative and comedic way.
People of all ages can get creative at Big Lamp Corner in Weston High Street on Saturday day-time, as the street comes alive as a 'Space to Remember' with free, family-friendly activities that pay tribute to those you may have loved and lost – including DJ song dedications, collective artwork, clay tile making, floral dedications and capturing special memories with Weston Hospicecare.
On Saturday afternoon, the Plaza Cinema is screening the critically-acclaimed meditation on grief 'All of Us Strangers'. Dr Jimmy Hay, a University of Bristol Senior Lecturer who specialises in grief in cinema, will introduce this 'emotionally wrenching masterpiece', followed by post-screening discussion.
There is also a free screening of biggerhouse film's 'We need to talk about death' at Front Room Theatre, a short film made with a group of adults with learning differences and a film screening of 'Albatross' and environmental Q & A with the director at 'We Are Super', The Sovereign.
In Clevedon, the Curzon Cinema is presenting a special family event that includes a screening of Disney Pixar's 'Coco', which takes you on an extraordinary journey through the Land of the Dead, with a craft session inspired by the movie held before the film.
Music-lovers can be uplifted by 'Apple of My Eye', described as 'uproarious troubadours of the modern folk scene' singing songs of life, death and everything in between at Front Room Theatre on Saturday evening, with feasting, singing and dancing in the mix.
A series of talks with keynote speakers and readings held across the weekend explore every aspect of grief, including personal, heartfelt experiences.
On Friday evening, Weston Museum hosts 'Understanding Grief, Loss and Change' with Dr Lesel Dawson in conversation with a trio of family therapists, Julia Samuel and her daughters, Emily and Sophie, known for their 'Therapy Works' podcast and for Julia Samuel's three bestselling books – 'Grief Works', 'This Too Shall Pass' and 'Every Family Has a Story'.
At Waterstone's in The Sovereign on Saturday afternoon, poet Carrie Etter reads from and discusses her recent and highly acclaimed poetry collection, 'Grief's Alphabet', a shattering elegy for the poet's mother that celebrates love in the same breath as it weeps for its loss.
At Weston's Front Room Theatre on Saturday night, we will be joined by palliative care doctor, author and activist Dr Rachel Clarke. Dr Clarke will discuss end-of-life care and grief, drawing on 'Dear Life', 'Breathtaking' (now a major TV drama) and the forthcoming 'The Story of a Heart', the unforgettable account of a heart transplant through the stories of two extraordinary children.
'Pregnancy, Baby Loss and Grief' is the subject of an online panel, presented by Good Grief Festival to explore the complex emotions experienced after baby loss, facilitated by psychotherapist Emily Samuel.
Throughout Good Grief Weston, a programme of workshops and library based activities across North Somerset offer something for everyone.
In Weston, enjoy drama with Super Culture Youth Theatre; create your own grief memoir with graphic comic maker H J Blake; take part in a community garden wellbeing group, discover therapeutic gardening and join Alive Activities for 'Life in Flowers' at Stanley's Garden in Worle; discuss Cecile Pin's debut novel 'Wandering Souls' at Waterstone's book club, learn new culinary skills at the Men's Cooking Group, and use arts and crafts to unlock conversations about the end of life in 'No Barriers Here' with Weston Hospicecare.
Join Netherlands-based 'social imagineer' Camille Sapara Barton in an immersive, movement workshop that draws upon their latest book 'Tending Grief' and the way that Global majority and queer communities experience unique constellations of loss.
In North Somerset, at Portishead Library 'Little People, Big Feelings' children's storytime sessions explore early concepts of loss and love, 'For You' offers an interactive and immersive musical experience and a Death Café offers a respectful and confidential space to talk gently about death and dying over tea and biscuits. At Clevedon Library, 'Love Letters to My Skeleton' with artist Laura Elliott is a lighthearted art workshop that looks at our incredible skeletal structure through drawing, writing, meditation and movement.
In Portishead, a dance workshop in Jubilee Hall recognises how feelings of love, fear and grief exist within our body and influence our spiritual and mental health and there will be a host of community stalls and information at Good Grief Nailsea drop-in at Nailsea Baptist Church. 'Look to The Skies – a festival walk' explores the night-time sky and what answers it holds on a guided bat and stargazing walk with poetry reading along the River Yeo.
On Sunday 13 October, 'Water Offering', facilitated by Camille Sapara Barton is a free, participatory community event at Weston Marine Lake that invites people of all ages to place a personal message on a rice paper water offering and set it afloat in a collective act of memorialisation on the final day of the event.
More events are to be announced, including additional workshops in North Somerset and activities at Weston General Hospital.
The project is funded by UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) under its Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC)-led Mobilising Community Assets to Tackle Health Inequalities programme, which aims to improve health through access to culture, nature and community.
