DORCHESTER’s Tatterdemalion, who began as the band of the New Hardy Players, celebrate their tenth anniversary of folky fun and colourful ceilidhs with a musical family get-together at the Corn Exchange on Saturday 13th September. For 10 years, Tatterdemalion have bounced around stages, bringing traditional tunes known to Dorset people 200 years ago to life,…
THE ancient coastal town of Christchurch, the deep woods of Moors Valley and the dramatic ruins of Corfe Castle provide the backdrop and venues for events and installations across Dorset at this year’s Inside OutDorset festival, which runs from 12th to 21st September across the county. The biennial event is an international outdoor arts festival,…
DORSET’s own folk music stars, Ninebarrow – Jon Whitley and Jay LaBouchardiere (pictured) – make a welcome return to Lyme Folk Weekend, appearing at the Marine Theatre on Saturday 30th August at 8pm. The duo, who are patrons of Lyme Folk, are back by popular demand, and will be joined on stage by friends and…
ONE of the West Country’s most delightful festivals, Burton Bradstock Music and Art Festival, returns to the West Dorset coast from 10th to 17th August. The programme of classical, jazz, folk and chamber music in St Mary’s Church is complemented by an art exhibition which is a showcase for artists from around the region, in…
THERE is grand opera in world-famous venues, country house opera in historic and beautiful gardens – and there is village opera at Oborne, the pretty little village close to Sherborne. Here local music lovers, with Jon and Jenny Fletcher of the Grange at Oborne hotel, have established a small but perfectly-formed summer festival which brings…
AFTER six years in its second venue, Belcombe Court in Bradford on Avon, Iford Arts’ If Opera moves to the beautiful surroundings of Church Farm, Wingfield, south of the town, for the 2025 season. This year’s festival runs from 7th to 17th August. The Clare Teal picnic prom on Sunday 10th August is now sold…
THE acclaimed folk band The Salts has a special concert at Honiton’s Beehive centre on Saturday 26th July, an evening of sea shanties and songs from the sea, at which they will be joined by West Country folk multi-instrumentalist and legend Phil Beer, half of the famous duo Show of Hands.. The five-strong band, whose…
THE Welsh valleys are a world away from the misty storied blue grass mountains of Virginia, but the five musicians of Taff Rapids have created their own musical genre – Blwgras from Wales. They have a short tour with Artsreach to village halls at Milborne St Andrew on Wednesday 23rd July, Halstock, on Thursday 24th…
SIDMOUTH Folk Festival, one of the biggest events in the folk and traditional music and dance calendar, is 70 this year. It is not the 70th festival (Covid and other factors intervened), but this seaside celebration of folk music, dance and song began in 1955, and it’s back this year from 1st to 8th August,…
SHAFTESBURY Fringe, three days of every kind of entertainment imaginable, returns to the historic Dorset town from 18th to 20th July, with a programme of more than 300 events (a record number) spread around 37 venues. As director Rob Neely says, it’s all about Shaftesbury: “From its very creation, Shaftesbury Fringe has acted as a…