Darlington’s Last Train Home Music and comedy festival was originally based in small venues close to Darlington station. The aim of its organisers, Tracks Darlington; a small local music collective, was to deliver a series of music and comedy gigs within walking distance of the station timed to finish in time for the ‘last train home’. It utilised pubs, shops, and even a church. Despite the setbacks of Covid pushing the experience online in previous years, in 2023 organisers aimed to make it bigger than ever with acts using the Forum music centre, Hullabaloo children’s theatre and Hippodrome theatre.
Our CRP wanted to help Tracks Darlington gain stronger links to the railway, attract more people to travel to the festival by train, and by holding an extra stage at the station; create a musical welcome to those arriving by train.
Tracks was also passionate about delivering an eco-friendly festival which would deliver social value, through its eco-friendly merchandise, listing local young acts, providing work opportunities to local young people, ensuring all venues are accessible and by signing up to the PRS’s key change scheme and working towards a 50% women and underrepresented genders in programming, staffing and beyond.
Our CRP began working with Tracks in January 2023, building connections with LNER and Northern and together agreed to help increase awareness of the festival, to attract more people to travel to it by train and to host a welcome stage at Darlington Station.
Funding from Community Rail Network’s Community Rail Development Fund (CRDF) enabled Tracks to increase marketing through social media activity, a blog and a zine produced by 14 local creatives. Festival posters were displayed at Bishop Line and Saltburn Line stations throughout August. Eco-friendly merchandise was sold at the event and all performers received branded water bottles to reduce waste. All venues were fully accessible and a bespoke chill out area was created for those needing a calmer environment, and performers access needs riders were all met.
Train strikes on the event day in 2023 meant that the station welcome stage had to be moved to the Hippodrome, that then created informal welcome and a great ‘shop window’ for passers-by. The expected number of attendees arriving by train was significantly lower than hoped but the potential for future years was very strong.
