Festival 2025
2025
In 2025, we delivered Festival Lite — a lighter-touch iteration of Dark Peak Photo Festival. While smaller in scale, it still required significant energy, care, and commitment, and proved to be a meaningful and impactful year for the festival.
Our Open Call was curated by Vikki Rutter and centred on the theme Lost and Found. From this, we exhibited 120 images across businesses throughout Glossop, embedding photography directly into the town and everyday spaces.
Having learned many lessons from the 2024 festival, we were able to put these into practice for 2025, shaping a memorable and focused smaller festival. We deliberately concentrated on a reduced number of workshops, allowing for deeper engagement, while still creating a festival that resonated strongly with participants and audiences.
Our festival map was kindly sponsored by Martin’s Bakery, with generous thanks to Richard at Kin.der for printing. The map was designed by Joolze Dymond and featured photographs from the Open Call photographers, bringing the work of contributors directly into the visual identity of the festival.
Vikki Rutter led a sold-out workshop, Exploring Creativity with Cyanotypes, alongside a vintage camera walk that encouraged participants to experiment with old film cameras and slower photographic processes. The space at the Stables kindly sponsored by Carott Productions.
On the Saturday, we hosted a Wander Walk sponsored by Glossop Creates. Over 25 people joined us to explore Glossop from a fresh photographic perspective. With Carys planning the route and leading the walk, and Dave and Vikki supporting participants with their cameras, it was a fun, engaging — and very cold — two hours. Our sincere thanks go to everyone who took part.
From this walk came two further opportunities, again thanks to Glossop Creates. The walking route was developed into a publication titled Wander, extending the life of the project beyond the festival itself.
The second publication, Wild Valley, was a photography book curated by Carys for Dark Peak Photo. Featuring work by over 20 photographers — both local and from further afield — the book celebrates Glossop and the surrounding landscape. It was expertly designed by BenJac.
Notably, the front cover image came from a first-time Open Call , entrant - Will Rowe whose photograph was not selected for exhibition. This perfectly illustrates the value of the Open Call as a way to connect with Dark Peak Photo — opportunities can emerge through visibility, participation, and taking that initial step to submit work.
Wild Valley would not have been possible without the community that has grown around Dark Peak Photo and the Open Call, which has fostered strong connections and collaboration. The opportunity arose through the driving force of Glossop Creates, led by Dr Claire Tymon, and we extend our heartfelt thanks for her guidance, support, and belief in the project.
Finally, a huge thank you to the businesses who generously provided space to display photography across Glossop, and to all our volunteers. Everyone at Dark Peak Photo currently works on an unpaid basis, supported by volunteers whose time, energy, and commitment make everything possible. Without them, we would not be able to deliver Festival Lite — nor the larger festival on the horizon in 2026.
The books are available from Dark Peak Books on the High Street in Glossop and also from We are Local Webshop
