Yesterday saw the third annual celebration of arts and culture across XP Trust and what a celebration it was! With temperatures soaring, students and partners braved the heat to deliver a festival rich in engagement, quality and community. Young people from every school across our Trust and other partners came together at XP Doncaster to perform and share their work. In addition, the Festival included a number of Presentations of Learning and input from one of our experts, artist (name) who co-created with visitors to the Festival a community piece of art that linked to the Year 8 Expedition ‘Should I Stay or Should I Go? 

“With temperatures soaring, students and partners braved the heat to deliver a festival rich in engagement, quality and community.”

The stage arrived at 6.30am (thanks to James and Pete) and was swiftly assembled as was the sound system so that students could begin to perform in the early afternoon. The Festival was opened by Dave Evans, whose work on making this a reality is truly inspiring, who introduced Noah Hopewell, our opening act on keyboard, who provided the audience with two stunning performances. This was followed by the Daggers with an indie flavoured set. Next up was Jensen Dickens with a solo acoustic performance. He played and sang beautifully followed by the Velcro Hearts whipping up the audience with an assured performance of the Oasis classic. ‘Cigarettes and Alcohol’. 

We were then joined by students from XP Gateshead who had travelled down from the North East to perform. Five bands played a range of songs in a variety of styles – from ‘Teenage Dirtbag’ to ‘Should I Stay or Should I Go?’ After this there were a series of solo performances by students under the expert tutelage of Zawedde which were both moving and showed the progress the vocalist had made over the course of the year. Special mention must go to the two groups of dancers and cheerleaders who braved the heat of the mats in front of the stage to deliver their performances!

The vocal group Vox Pops then graced the stage and put on a performance of high quality, enhanced by the accompaniment of their backing band (take a bow Geoff, Dave Harvey and Jensen).

At 3pm the festival moved into its next phase as we opened our doors further to parents, partners and members of the community to enjoy Presentations of Learning from Year 7, 8 and 9, the context of this work elevated by delivery from the main stage. Year 7 culminated their expedition by answering the Guiding Question, ‘How Does Water Shape Our World’ with a pertinent and timely message about the need to be safe around open water which was supported by the fire and rescue service. Year 8 shared their work from ‘Should I Stay or Should I Go?’ which engaged with the compelling Guiding Question, ‘Is Migration Worth the Risk?’ showcased by the permanent and beautiful mural students created to raise the awareness of the challenges facing migrants and refugees alongside local artist Phil Padfield who also attended the Festival to engage our wider community in a graffiti art project linked to the expedition as part of the Festival. Also, Sacha Gray from Community Arts organisation ‘Right Up Our Street’ visited the festival to interview a group of Year 8 students about their work which will be installed, with the support of RUOS, to impact positively in the Balby Bridge estate in Doncaster highlighting the importance of art in bringing communities together. Year 9 held a village fete style experience for their PoL where different stalls covered the different aspects of their expedition that had focused on ‘Protecting Our Planet’. In addition, as part of the culmination of learning, students displayed to parents their learning about coding and programming micro:bits!

“Sacha Gray from Community Arts organisation ‘Right Up Our Street’ (RUOS) visited the festival to interview a group of Year 8 students about their work which will be installed, with the support of RUOS, to impact positively in the Balby Bridge estate in Doncaster highlighting the importance of art in bringing communities together.”

Next up were a visiting band from New College, INOCULUM, who treated our guests to some very heavy rock. After some further stunning vocal performances from Sara and Pixie. The XP Jazz Band took to the stage to bring a chilled out, sophisticated vibe to the early evening performances. This was followed by two rock bands from Norton (what a vocal performance from Logan!) and Carcroft that were quite simply breathtaking. This was interspersed with a high energy and vibrant performance by the Samba Bands from Plover and Green Top (so good they did it twice!!) Thank you to Tom and Harvey who have worked tirelessly with these students over just seven weeks to get them performance ready – remarkable!

The final part of the evening was fired up by sets from the long established band The Roses, followed by the Brackets and Crash Radio.There were some inspired performances of real high quality and range – it was humbling to see how much progress and how accomplished these bands have become over the course of recent years building on their experiences of being patriot of our year long XP Live performance opportunities. My particular favourite was Crash Radio’s rendition of the Sex Pistol’s ‘Anarchy in the UK’!!

The festival culminated with an awe-inspiring parade featuring all of our Primary Schools, resulting in African songs and dancing led by our old friend Xolani – who is amazing!! What a sight it was to behold young people from across our primary schools fully engaging in music and dancing. It was very moving and uplifting. 

The festival was closed by our long term friends, partners and residents, Doncaster Youth Jazz Association. As always their Swing Band, that is just about to embark on a tour of Herten in Germany, completed the evening with sophisticated Jazz classics and upbeat swing versions of popular songs. It was a fantastic end to a wonderful day.

“weaving together community, character, and performance into a singular, elevating experience.”

The XP Trust Festival of Arts and Culture 2026 serves as a powerful testament to the transformative impact of our schools’ creative curriculum, weaving together community, character, and performance into a singular, elevating experience. By providing a stage for students from across the Trust to share their work, the festival actively builds essential life skills: nurturing the confidence and resilience required to conquer nerves and individual expression, alongside fostering the compassion and integrity needed to collaborate as Crew. The day acts as a pivotal bridge between students, parents, and partners, creating a shared space where academic milestones like Presentations of Learning meet the joy of collective performance, ultimately reinforcing a culture where students are inspired to pursue mastery, value belonging, and be made to see that there is more in them than they know.

My heartfelt thanks go to the staff, partners, and community members whose unwavering support made this our best festival yet. Particular thanks go to Claira Salter, staff at XPD and Trust staff who bore the brunt of stewardship and organisational duties. Seeing the growth, courage, and connection on display, from our youngest primary dancers to our graduating bands, has been truly humbling. 

As we look back on an incredible day of community and celebration, I am already counting down the days until next year…

Andy Sprakes