Appointment of a Creative Team for Blyth Celebrates Festival of Energy

Northumberland County Council (NCC) were successful in attracting £355,384 from North East Combined Authority (NECA) for a Festival of ENERGY in Blyth, taking place in February 2026 in partnership with ORE Catapult, Port of Blyth and Newcastle University.

We are now inviting Expressions of Interest from exceptional and exciting creative events and festivals companies that have an excellent track record of delivering high quality events, from concept to every aspect of delivery. The Festival of ENERGY is a creative and artistic response to the globally recognised, innovation in renewables, taking place in Blyth, Northumberland.

The Festival of ENERGY will offer a key highlight and finale event as part of Blyth Celebrates yearlong cultural programme. The four-day event and participatory programme will develop co-designed content with local communities, building new audiences and attracting visitors to the town securing Blyth as a new visitor destination for creativity and innovation and recognised as a world leader in the renewables sector, reflected in the vision of the Energising Blyth regeneration project.

The Festival of ENERGY will deliver an expansive engagement programme from September - December 2025 to explore and delve into the significant renewables sector in Blyth to be showcased and profiled during an intensive long weekend (4 days) in February 2026. The Festival will deliver educational and experiential opportunities through talks, tours, film, interaction and spectacle. We want to demystify and showcase the industry, to capitalise on Blyth's unique economic strength to attract national audiences and support future investment and profile.

NCC's procurement process is managed through a new portal called www.open-uk.org ↗ You will need to register on the OPEN portal to ensure you will be able to respond to this opportunity.

The timelines currently for this project are outlined below (please note these are not confirmed and are subject to change):

Invitation to Tender published - June 2025

Submission deadline for ITT responses - July 2025

Notification of Award - End July 2025

Contract Start - August/September 2025

Festival - late February 2026

The project is due to start in August / September 2025 with the 4-day Festival taking place in late February 2026. Where we hope to attract 10,000 people, engage with 500 local people and 25 volunteers over the project.

Please note that this Market Engagement Document is not an invitation to tender, and you are under no obligation to complete it. This document does not form any requirement of an invitation to tender. The Council is issuing this request for information only. No supplier selection or supplier preference is implied.

All responses will be treated confidentially and used solely to inform the Council's approach to the future commissioning of services.

This Market Engagement document is to be returned to Northumberland County Council by Wednesday 28th May at 12 Noon via the OPEN Tender Portal www.open-uk.org ↗

1. Market Engagement Questions

Q1 Will the timescales outlined above be achievable?

Q2 Please advise if you have any queries regarding the event.

Q3 The tender documents will be published in June to be returned in July, do you intend to submit a bid? If not please detail your reason why not.