Imagine a place… a place where nothing is quite as it seems; where the imaginations of young people have transformed the town, giving it an otherworldly twist.
It’s a magical place where anything seems possible; where a stone wall might open portals to new worlds, where you can order the weather with your coffee, and where kindness is delivered by fluttering butterflies.
It’s both familiar and fantastical, a reimagined Rotherham that invites you to see the town through a new lens.
Rotherham is the world’s first Children’s Capital of Culture, celebrating with a year-long festival, throughout 2025, designed and delivered by young people for everyone to enjoy.
Otherham Winter Light Festival was the first major event in the festival year showcasing a world-class projection trail inspired by the creative and inventive storytelling of the borough’s young residents.
Rotherham is a town FULL of stories- a Story-town with a generation of children and young people intent on writing their own narratives and inventing their own futures. However, stories need homes to nurture them and spaces to grow. So, to help to tell some of those stories, back in the Spring in 2024, the Youth Programming panel selected imitating the dog to work with us to create the major artworks for the festival. They loved the concept of Otherham- saying that it was funny, uplifting and would appeal to loads of different ages. “It’s amazing- like a portal into the weird world.”
Children and young people have been involved at every stage of the planning and creative delivery:
To create the ideas for Otherham, Grimm & Co, in partnership with imitating the dog, ran a 6-week writing programme for young people aged 12-16. The young writers reimagined Rotherham as an otherworldly place, with their stories directly inspiring the projection designs.
To celebrate Rotherham’s young filmmaking talent, we partnered with Children’s Capital of Culture, imitating the dog, and Studio Bokehgo to work with schools and young creators to produce 4 original, imaginative short films, which were showcased in the ‘Cinema of Future Films’ across all three nights.
A new song written by young people at Grimm & Co was featured as part of the projections and in Minster Gardens people explored a light trail of lanterns made in community and school workshops with the team at RSPB Old Moor.
There were walk-about performances, performances by young Rotherham Musicians, workshops in Minster Gardens, on Forge Island, in Grimm and Co. and in Rotherham Minster.
A huge thank you to all of our partners: RMBC events, Grimm & Co, Children’s Capital of Culture, imitating the dog, Rotherham Music, Rotherham Minster, all the host venues and projection sites and our funders Arts Council England and South Yorkshire Combined Mayoral Authority, without whom events like this wouldn’t be possible. Most of all thank you to the children and young people and their amazing imaginations as nothing would have happened without them.
