Our Freedom: Then and Now Cockermouth Musical

23rd November 2025 1:30pm

Cockermouth Main Street

Category: Join In

Marking 80 years since the end of WWII, this free community musical is based on people's memories of living in the area during and after the war – including the VE Day celebrations when the Billy Bowman band played to the crowds from the roof of the air-raid shelter on Main Street.

  • Moving and powerful stories based on the memories of children who were evacuated to Cockermouth to escape the air-raids in the ship-building towns of the North East and who had to spend their first Christmas away from home.
  • Reminiscences of refugees who lived at Moota YMCA camp after the war ended, working on local farms, helping to rebuild the country after the hardships of wartime, who used music, dance and song to build connections and relationships with people living here.
  • Reflections from local residents on what 'Freedom' means to them today.
  • Uplifting new song written for the project by JP Worsfold, and arranged for choir by Dave Camlin, learned and sung by a scratch choir of local residents over this autumn, and performed in an open-air world premiere as part of theCockermouth Annual Christmas Lights Switch Onevent.

1:30 – 1:50pm on the main stage on Main Street – FREE to all

Kirkgate Arts and Heritage are a part of theOur Freedom: Then and Nowproject. Sixty arts centres and libraries across Britain are taking part in nationwide celebrations reflecting on what freedom means 80 years after the end of the Second World War.

We will also be performing the show indoors at The Kirkgate centre on the 14th December, book your tickets for that performance here.

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