S&DR200 Launch - All Change

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S&DR200 festival launches with All Change, a spectacular open-air live performance and drone show.

The S&DR200 festival will launch with All Change, a spectacular open-air event in Bishop Auckland combining dazzling projections, drones and up to 100 live performers bringing history to life, on Saturday 29 March 2025.

The nine-month S&DR200 international festival, running from March to November 2025 across County Durham and the Tees Valley, is inspired by the first journey on the Stockton and Darlington Railway in the north east of England, which gave birth to the modern railway.

Marking the official start of S&DR200, All Change is an unmissable show in Bishop Auckland at the home of Kynren. The event will speed through 200 years of railway history and major historical moments, from the Industrial Revolution, two World Wars to the present, celebrating the transformative power of trains on the landscape and our lives. A fleet of 400 drones from world-renowned SKYMAGIC, promising a breathtaking visual experience set against the night sky.

Inspired by conversations with local historians, the spectacle will bring history to life with large-scale set pieces, projection mapping, original music and drones. The show will feature up to 100 performers from the local community, made up of the same team of dedicated local trained volunteers.

For more details of events throughout the year, please check out the latest Events Programme

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.