Three Degrees Festival film now online

Posted by Darren Leadsom on 26 September 2025

The Three Degrees Festival was the culmination of a year-long project focussed on using youth voice, music and the arts to inspire the community to take positive climate action in their own lives.

Taking place at More Music in Morecambe‘s West End on Saturday 5 July 2025, the event attracted 2000 people over the afternoon and was supported by a wide range of partner organisations. The Three Degrees Festival included live music, street theatre, poetry, dance, arts and crafts, VR, sustainable food stalls, environmental themed activities and more!

“It was amazing to hear what nature meant to people from all walks of life, old and young. The whole festival felt like a wonderful celebration of community… It was very youth led with a real sense of pride. The live music was great, and it was nice to see so many stalls with a variety to engage in practically… Something for everyone, thoughtfully put together and themed around climate change, highly impressive” Audience member

Supported by the Energy Saving Trust Foundation and Francis Scott Trust, the year-long project was themed around climate change, with a focus on amplifying the voices of young people, finding out how they feel about climate change and sharing their thoughts and creative ideas through music workshops and the festival.

The project had two main strands:

– Eco Collective – a group of young producers aged 14-25 who worked with the More Music team to programme and deliver the festival. During the year, the group met with experts from environmental organisations, higher and further education institutions, artists and local government representatives to learn more about the issues, find out what work was already happening locally to combat climate change and to consider how that could be represented at the festival. They selected the performers, curated a photography exhibition, supported the development of marketing materials, created décor for the festival site, suggested workshop activities for the festival, and were a vital part of making the event happen on the day from helping with the setup and pack down, to hosting the event and supporting workshop sessions. After the festival was completed, we evaluated the project with the group. At the outset, they had reported feeling slightly intimidated by the task ahead but by the end, they all felt a sense of achievement and the confidence to do more from being a part of it.

(The Three Degrees Festival) has been really transformative for us both as individuals and as a team – Eco Collective member

– Primary School Residences – We ran 14-week residencies at Sandylands Primary School and West End Primary School in Morecambe over the Spring and Summer 2025 terms. We worked with four KS2 classes in each school and supported the children to write new songs inspired by the theme of climate change which included the actions they wanted to take. The nine new songs were performed at the festival by children from both schools on the festival’s main stage, backed by a live band. This was followed up with a performance to the rest of the school community in each of the schools.

“If you play music, more people will get the message and put it into their heads.” Sandylands School pupil

“I think singing is a really good way to send message around people because it’s fun and just grabs more attention than actually talking to them.” Sandylands School pupil

“They’re able to use their knowledge to help write the songs, sing them and raise awareness to people in the local area of how serious climate change is and the things we can do to fix it.” Mr Kearns, Sandylands School teacher

Alongside these strands, all our in-house music projects were represented at the festival, as performers, audiences and artists. They were all invited to submit photography for the Here Forever exhibition, creating a collection of photographs of places in nature meaningful to them which they wanted to save. This was exhibited at More Music during the festival and remained on display for the rest of the year. Alongside this many of our music projects performed music inspired by the theme of climate change, including an extremely special moment when all our youth singing groups and our older Seagull Café participants joined together to sing Horizon, a song written by our Sing it Out group.

More Music’s Executive Director, Marianne Barraclough said:

“We loved working with the Eco Collective to co-produce the festival and were delighted with the fantastic creativity from the young people from Sandylands and West End Primary Schools. It was wonderful to create an event that brought together so many members of the community and brilliant partner organisations to share different ways into thinking about climate change. The feedback from audience members, schools, artists, partner organisations and participants has been overwhelmingly positive, and we are working on plans to bring Three Degrees Festival back to Morecambe in 2026!”

AUDIENCE FEEDBACK

What did you enjoy about the festival?

– It was really well organised with lots of stuff to do for everyone. The bands were all great and it was lovely to see the West End looking smart and busy

– The variety of performances, great community atmosphere and important theme.

– Seeing so many people come together for a celebration but also an education was wonderful.

– The general ethos was warm and inclusive. The young peoples choirs. The focus on the environment.

– Fab to see More Music and all the people who attend there making a great day out for the West End.. Its brilliant having this on our doorstep

– Well organised and very enjoyable community event.

– Loved the diversity and community spirit

– Great idea, good branding, fantastic community participation, lovely local – global vibe.

– Great to see so many young people involved, well done!

What elements of the festival most inspired you to think about climate action?

– The passion of the musicians

– The lyrics in the songs and the stalls were thought provoking.

– The whole concept was of local simplicity which is an encouragement to climate action in itself.

– The words from the songs young people had written were powerful sang by them. The photos were a lovely touch so nice to see others take on what they see as beautiful.

– The children singing songs about climate change

– The specifically written music pieces, the artwork on display, the food stalls relating to sustainability.

– The dance from Ludus spelled out the issues with fast fashion.

– Some of the songs were powerful

– I thought the printing on your own T shirts was a good idea, reusing clothes.

Thank you to our partner organisations who helped to make the festival a success:

Ancient Heart

A Word in Your Ear Coffee

Eden Project Morecambe

Escape2Make

Food Futures

Friends of Lancaster Library