The lineup of events taking place at Magpies Festival of Thrift in Exmouth on the 2nd to the 9th of March has been announced.

It’s a week long festival celebrating all things thrifty: upcycling, repurposing, saving, mending and reusing.

Over the week there are lots of low cost workshops, free activities and a family fun day, exploring skills and ideas for fixing old items or turning them into new ones, and creating community along the way.

‘Eco’s’ - Exmouth Community College students who attend a weekly environmental club, will create activities for the Magpies Festival.

The group from years 8, 9 and 10 have created two challenges based in the town’s charity shops, to encourage more people to consider buying second hand.

The first is a ‘Snazzy Fashion Challenge’, where entrants will put together an Oscar-worthy outfit to be shown off on the catwalk. The second is a scavenger hunt, where teams scour the shops and photograph items for categories like ‘wackiest hat’ or ‘shiniest thing’.

The Eco’s group have also been working on a project to encourage people to recycle their tech. A large wire-framed robot sculpture is being commissioned that people can add their tech to before it all goes to be repaired or recycled.

The Mad Magpies are attempting to make a mile of bunting. During the week of the festival Magpies will be collecting fabric, pressing, cutting and sewing bunting, and are calling for helpers. If you would like to learn how to make bunting then you can join the sewing sessions, or community groups can make their own.

The bunting will be used to decorate the Exmouth Festival in July, and also some will be donated to the Library of Things, so members can borrow it for their own events.

Local creatives and volunteers made wonderful bunting for the festival many years ago, which is still in use, but much of it is now degraded and needs to be replaced.

It’s perfect for roping off precious flowerbeds, and decorating the festival sites. Made from scraps people have lying around, it’s the perfect sustainable decoration.
 
Sunday 4th March sees the launch of Magpie Tables. Magpie Tables are a way to turn unwanted items into wanted ones.

On the first Sunday of the month we encourage people to leave unwanted items outside their house to be picked up by anyone who wants it.

If you have a lot of things, put a table out and offer books, clothes or household items.

Conceived and run by Exmouth Town Council and Sideshore Community, with support from the Arts and Culture East Devon fund, Magpies draws together lots of community groups, makers and menders to pass on skills and give people ideas about how to be thrifty.

Magpies will explore skills and ideas for fixing old items or turning them into new ones Whether it’s thrift with materials or money, Magpies aims to encourage giving old items a new lease of life and careful use of resources.

With the environmental emergency and the cost of living crisis hitting, people have plenty of reasons to shift to thrift.

On a planet of finite resources it makes sense to use them more wisely.

Find out more on the Magpies Festival of Thrift's website or follow on social media.