The Witches’ Revival: New Festival Honours the Pendle Witches

  New festival honours the Pendle Witches on the anniversary of the Lancaster Witch Trials of 1612. The Witches’ Revival, a four-day festival of history, healing and creative arts, will remember the 12 innocent people found guilty of witchcraft during the Lancaster Witch Trials of 1612. The festival will take place between 17 and 20 August, 2023 at The Storey, Lancaster. Through an exciting offering of interactive art installations, performances, workshops, talks, a Witches’ Emporium, and a day of Remembrance, visitors will learn about the history of the Pendle Witches through the lens of ancestral trauma and be guided to transform the negative impact it continues to have on our lives 400 years on. A pilgrimage remembrance walk on Sunday 20 August will inaugurate the anniversary of the witch hangings on Gallows Hill. Aptly titled The Witches’ Revival – Reclaiming What We Lost, the festival will explore how the European Witch Hunts of 1450-1750 left a wound in our collective psyche which still affects us today, and deliver an arts and education programme to help us transform it. Building on the success of the month-long I AM WITCH exhibition at The Storey in January 2022 - which was attended by 2,500 people and featured widely in the media, including Jonathan Ross’ Myths and Legends show on Channel 4 - four of the women behind the event are collaborating again to bring this exciting follow up festival. Cali White, festival organiser and founder of the Witches House - a new organisation dedicated to educating people about the inherited trauma of the Burning Times and providing pathways to healing - says: ‘The response to our I AM WITCH exhibition last January was overwhelmingly positive and highlighted the growing numbers of people who resonate with our shared history of the witch hunts. With this follow up event, we want to give visitors the opportunity to participate more deeply and continue our work of dispelling the witch myths of black pointy hats, devil worshipping, warty-nosed old women, and tell the untold story of what really happened.’ ‘The Witches’ Revival – Reclaiming What We Lost is a new kind of experience, designed to take the practice of remembrance into lasting and meaningful change. Each year we remember the lives of soldiers lost in the Great Wars with poppy wreaths and national services and yet, wars continue. With the witch hunts it’s the same - we remember the Pendle Witches and yet still play out the harmful dynamics of betrayal and mistrust inherited from the Burning Times, which can leave us feeling unsafe, unsupported, and isolated. ‘The event is designed for women to understand how this collective legacy of ancestral trauma continues to affect us, keeping us small, silenced, and lacking confidence. Honouring the Pendle Witches in this new way will help us connect with the lives of our ancestors and reclaim those lost parts of ourselves – our wisdom, creativity, sisterhood, intuition and, of course, magic!’ At the heart of The Witches’ Revival is an interactive art installation called Return of the Witches, which takes visitors on a journey to meet the seven main archetypes of the Witch, including the Wisewoman, the Creatrix, and the Healer, and invites them to explore and reclaim the power of those parts within themselves. Alongside that, The Witches’ School of Wonder daily programme of healing workshops and inspiring talks will feature Lucy H. Pearce, bestselling author of Burning Woman, and other eminent female authors such as Seed SistAS, Annie R. McEwen, Liz Rothschild, Sarah Robinson, and Carly Mountain. Major highlight will be Witch Story, an immersive live evening show written and performed by singer-songwriter Lynsey Tidbury and dance artist Sara Carter, evoking the journey of woman as delineated by the Cailleach creation story through song, dance and ritual. ‘The aim of the show is to stir the collective memories held in our bones so that we remember our roots and connection to the land,’ Sarah Carter says. ‘The powerful archetype of the Witch has been subject to oppression and misunderstanding for centuries, and our performance aims to reclaim her wisdom and magic.’ Inaugurating the anniversary of the hangings of witches on Gallows Hill in Lancaster, a pilgrimage walk on Sunday 20 August will be the focus for a day of outdoor remembrance. Starting at Lancaster Castle and tracing the final steps of the Pendle Witches up to Williamson Park, the walk will complete with a picnic and celebration, marking the end of the festival. Families are welcome. Cali White says: ‘Women are coming from all over the country to immerse themselves in a weekend that promises to be a powerful experience of sisterhood, healing and magical creativity! We are hoping this will become an annual event for Lancaster, helping to keep the story of the Pendle Witches alive in helpful and meaningful ways.’ For further information about the event and to book your place, visit thewitcheshouse.org