[2] In 1991 local musicians collaborated to start the Stockton Riverside Fringe Festival as a companion event to SIRF.
It grew from a small, free, one-stage, one-day fringe event that was intended to showcase local talent to become, by its tenth festival in 2010, a multi-stage, paid for event headlined by as Calvin Harris.
It was headlined by Maxïmo Park in 2011,[6] The Pogues in 2012,[7] Primal Scream in 2013[8] and by Public Enemy in 2014, which would be its last year.
[11] The Festival Programme is delivered by a dedicated team employed by the local authority.
The SIRF community carnival programme commissions artists to engage with local schools and community groups supporting them to create costumes, carnival structures, music and performances, interpreting an annually agreed theme, which then become a vibrant and colourful procession through the centre of Stockton starting at noon on the Saturday afternoon.