Youth Performance Festival

Youth Performance Festival Intro Video

Northampton High School Feature 2023

the youth performance festival!

CLICK HERE FOR TICKETS FOR THE 2025 YOUTH PERFORMANCE FESTIVAL!

The Youth Performance Festival is a collaborative program of Play Incubation Collective and the Northampton Center for the Arts at 33 Hawley, in partnership with Make-It Springfield. Now in its 6th year, YPF is a FREE opportunity for youth artists ages 8-18 to create original performance pieces with the guidance of mentor artists in the fields of music, dance, theater, poetry/spoken word, video/animation, and more. YPF centers the creative agency of young artists, and is committed to supporting them as they discover their own creative processes. For YPF 2025, we are partnering with Make-It Springfield for the second year to offer a Springfield-based youth cohort in addition to the Northampton cohort as part of the long term goal to expand YPF in Western Mass. YPF is an outstanding festival experience that warms hearts and inspires creativity in audience members of all ages!

The Youth Performance Festival is a FREE program for youth artists, and mentor artists are compensated fairly for their work. We could not do this without the support of our community, and donations are gratefully accepted throughout the year.

Are you interested in sponsoring YPF as a business or an individual? We need your support! Please contact Kelly Silliman at kelly@nohoarts.org for more information. (All other inquiries, please email Sarah Marcus at sarah@playincubation.org.)

For individual donors, please note YPF in the memo line of your donation!

The 2025 Youth Performance Festival is sponsored in part by Art Always, A2Z Science and Learning, Wohl Family Dentistry, Community Classroom, Workroom Design Studio, Dostal Eye Care, Northampton Area Pediatrics, Downtown Sounds, J2Guides, Cedar Chest, Greenfield Savings Bank, and the Beveridge Foundation.

Thank you to our Angel Donors, PeoplesBank and Spero Charitable Foundation, who made a 3-year commitment in 2023.

The Youth Performance Festival is also sponsored in part by the local cultural councils of Springfield, Northampton, South Hadley, Amherst, and Hadley. These organizations are local agencies that are part of the Massachusetts Cultural Council, a state agency.

Thank you to our media sponsor, Northampton Open Media and our food sponsor, Antonio’s Pizza!

Performance photos by Liz Walber of Northampton Open Media

Rehearsal photos above by Kelly Silliman

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