Can you believe that the wonderful Chichester Festival Youth Theatre is marking 40 years in 2025? From humble beginnings (the first ever Chichester group had 20 members), CFYT has welcomed over 17,000 members over the last four decades and is now the largest regional Youth Theatre in the UK - reaching 850 children and young people ages 5 to 25 every week across a 50 mile radius. We are inviting you to join us in a huge round of applause for this fantastic achievement! 

How we are celebrating 40 fantastic years?

• The Big Sing on Oaklands Park on 1 August featuring over 40 Youth Theatre members & alumni.
• A company of CFYT alumni will stage That Pesky Rat for children under 5 at The Nest and on a schools and libraries tour.
• A unique exhibition of CFYT’s history curated by Keshira Aarabi, Youth Theatre alum and now CFT’s Projects & Events Coordinator in December.
• Collating a Youth Theatre Alumni study reaching as many past members as possible. Please share your CFYT story on this online form. 
• The grand finale will be a gala performance of our Christmas show, A Boy Called Christmas. We want to fill the house with our extended CFYT family - past and present - and to raise a celebratory drink after the show.

CFYT has undoubtedly transformed the lives of thousands of young people, giving them transferrable skills and enriching their lives in a way that no other experience can (their words not ours!). 

A key aspect of our ethos has always been to ensure that we are able to break down barriers to participation and to be fully inclusive and accessible. We run specialist workshops for young people with additional needs; we also focus on inclusion of young carers and young refugees. 

Our bursary provision is key to ensuring that we can offer young people whose families are facing socio-economic hardship, or other challenging circumstances, opportunities to enhance their lives through the arts. Over 170 young people (21% of our members) receive a bursary. A 50% increase from last year. 

If you'd like to support the work CFYT does, please consider giving to our Appeal. 

Fun facts about CFYT:

• The first ever CFYT group had 20 members. Now there are 850 members making CFYT the largest regional Youth Theatre in the UK
• CFYT began with 1 lead practitioner - now, there are 31 practitioners!
• From one weekly workshop, CFYT now has 44 weekly workshops in Chichester and Midhurst, Bognor Regis, Littlehampton, Horsham, Worthing, Billingshurst and North End Portsmouth
• In 2009, we launched our Technical Youth Theatre; over 80% Youth Tech members have followed a career into the theatre industry – many returning to be part of stage management teams here at CFT
• In 2015, CFYT was the first and only youth theatre to win a UK Theatre Award for a family production, Running Wild
• For more than 20 years, the Youth Theatre has headlined Christmas, playing to over 20,000 people each year
• CFYT has staged 103 Productions, both small and large scale
• 101 Dalmatians (2015) had the largest cast of any CFYT show to date, with 122 Youth Theatre members

From our alumni: 

Being part of Chichester Festival Youth Theatre...

• raised their confidence, self-esteem, resilience
• enabled them to present and take part confidently in public speaking
• has made them more disciplined and resourceful 
• taught them new skills and knowledge 
• enabled them to make friendships for life
• enabled them to collaborate better with others, to be respectful and to be a great team players
• instilled a life-long love of theatre and the arts, that they carry forward into their adult lives
• gave them the power to be their best