Nottingham Playhouse is celebrating 12 years of sponsorship of its annual pantomime by one of the city’s most prominent organisations, Nottingham City Transport.
As the glitter settles on this year’s panto, Sleeping Beauty, it marks the 12th and final year of sponsorship by the award-winning Nottingham City Transport. The sponsorship is invaluable to Nottingham Playhouse in enabling it to keep producing its legendary panto to the highest possible standards.
Funds from the sponsorship deal also support the access performances of the pantomime, including BSL, Captioned, Audio Described, Dementia Friendly and Relaxed performances. In return, Nottingham City Transport and their employees have benefitted from prominent branding across all panto marketing, association with the biggest production of the year, access to a private buy-out performance, and two special on-stage moments in every panto performance that create direct, joyful engagement with a large and captive family audience night after night.
Stephanie Sirr MBE, Chief Executive at Nottingham Playhouse, said:
“The relationship we’ve had with Nottingham City Transport through their sponsorship has been absolutely joyful, with tangible benefits on both sides. As both companies have embraced sustainable new technology, we’ve been able to promote that in tandem and of course, we’ve loved hosting Driver of the Year for NCT as well.
“We’re very grateful for their support of Nottingham Playhouse’s legendary pantomime and its enduring relationship with local families, many of whom use NCT buses to reach us.”
Managing Director at Nottingham City Transport, David Astill MBE, commented:
“It has been a pleasure to sponsor the legendary Playhouse Panto, which brings joy and laughter to thousands of people every year. We’d like to thank Nottingham Playhouse for their support and partnership throughout our sponsorship, particularly for their involvement in our Staff Awards, which has seen five of our bus drivers go on to be recognised nationally in the UK Bus Awards.”
Over the years of the sponsorship deal, there have been many memorable events, such as Nottingham Playhouse staff driving buses around Langar Airfield in the ‘Bus Driving Championships’ and trips around the city with panto cast in full costume, meeting the public on board NCT buses.
Nottingham City Transport was named UK Bus Operator of the Year for an unprecedented sixth time in 2024, and at the 2025 awards, it’s Bus Driver of the Year, Zohra Rani, won the Top National Bus Driver: The Chris Moyes Memorial Award.
Posted on 26 January 2026
