CHArts 2026 Community Feedback: What we heard and what we'll do differently
CHArts Festival brought our community together for another month of creativity, culture and connection in September, with 45 events, more than 2,800 recorded attendances and 151 competition entries.
After the festival, we asked our community what worked well and what we could improve. We've now reviewed the feedback and we're reporting back on what we heard and what happens next.
What we heard
We received 26 survey responses, with an average event rating of 4.2 out of 5.
People particularly enjoyed the variety of music and performances, hands-on workshops, exhibitions and opportunities to connect with others.
Suggestions for improvement included better event scheduling, more evening workshops, improvements to venues and workshop organisation, and more opportunities for young people to get involved.
What we'll do differently
The CHArts team will use this feedback to help plan the 2027 festival, including exploring repeat sessions, improving scheduling and making workshops more accessible.
One area we particularly want to improve is how we involve and hear from younger people.
Of the 26 survey respondents, 17 were aged 55 or over. We recognise the survey wasn't promoted as widely as it could have been and that we didn't hear from a broad cross-section of our community.
At the October Council meeting, local young person Ebony Robson-Wells spoke about the importance of opportunities for young people, drawing on her own experiences with CHArts as a participant, judge and winner.
"CHArts offers a safe space for personal expression, a place to submit and view creative works across all mediums for free, and a place to gather and appreciate one another. It gives young people something to work towards, something to support, and something to talk about. CHArts brings people together, and we need more of that in Circular Head."
We're already working to strengthen our connections with young people. Council has a Youth Officer again, Circular Head Youth Leaders (CHYL) is back up and running and we're working more closely with schools and young people.
We also want to find better ways of reaching young people through schools, sporting clubs, community groups and parents so they can help shape activities like CHArts from the beginning.
Bringing people together, celebrating local creativity and creating opportunities for everyone to participate are important aspirations in our community's Vision 2050.
Thank you to everyone who took part in CHArts 2026 and shared their feedback.
Read the full CHArts Festival 2026 Report for more results and recommendations for next year.