S&DR200 Festival
Saturday 27 September 2025 marks the 200th anniversary of the opening of the Stockton and Darlington Railway (S&DR), which gave birth to the modern railway.
The 26-mile journey on the S&DR between Shildon and Stockton via Darlington on 27 September 1825 transformed how the world traded, travelled, and communicated.
To celebrate the 200th anniversary, the nine-month S&DR200 Festival will take place across County Durham and the Tees Valley from March to November 2025. It will celebrate the region’s pioneering past and look forward to its future with a series of free large-scale outdoor spectacles, events, exhibitions and new art commissions in public spaces, libraries, and world-class museums.
Programme highlights
Opening event
Bishop Auckland
29 March 2025
Travel through time and place, as imitating the dog and SKYMAGIC bring their distinctive combination of technology, live performance, and drone show to a celebration of the bold innovation, creative thinking and ingenuity that led to the world-changing opening of the S&DR.
This unique show will freewheel through time from the spark of an idea to the early locomotives, which powered the world into a new era. A story which moved people then, today and into the future.
Ghost Train
Darlington 20 September 2025
Stockton 28 September 2025
Two major outdoor events inspired by the Stockton and Darlington Railway story.
The first features a procession through Darlington, showcasing large-scale art installations representing pivotal modern inventions.
The following week, in Stockton town centre, a spectacular theatrical reimagining will commemorate the historic arrival of Locomotion No. 1 into Stockton harbour in 1825, marking the birth of the modern railway.
Co-produced by Avanti Display and Walk the Plank, from a creative concept developed by Andy Plant, Bill Palmer, Bryan Tweddle and Chris Squire.
A Memorable Journey
Various locations throughout 2025
A mass-participation art project for visitors to festival venues, school children, care home residents and communities across the region.
The public will be asked to reflect on a personal memorable journey and use that as inspiration to decorate a small wooden doll.
These will be installed at a venue at the end of the festival and photographed, digitised, and archived, to represent a snapshot of travel memories.
