IF your thoughts go north of the border at the mention of “the Fringe” you clearly haven’t discovered the Shaftesbury Fringe, a weekend of entertainment, comedy, music, dance, theatre, cabaret, poetry, eccentricity and all-round original creativity. This year’s Shaftesbury Fringe, running over four days, from Thursday 25th to Sunday 28th July, features a massive line-up…
OPERA in beautiful rural settings is now almost as much part of the English summer (whatever the weather) as the village fete and strawberries and cream. The tiny village of Oborne near Sherborne has quietly but steadily been developing its own mini opera festival, and this year, from Friday 26th July to Sunday 4th August…
SIDMOUTH Folk Festival returns this year, from Friday 2nd to Friday 9th August – for the 70th anniversary, making it one of the world’s longest established celebration of traditional folk music and dance. Sidmouth has been at the heart of the English – and British, European and world – folk scene, championing traditional music, dance…
CRANBORNE Chase, with the Cursus, Badbury Rings and many prehistoric remains, is a magical landscape – where better to launch a new festival which aims to reconnect with nature and the rural environment, in a multi-arts programme of music, dance, storytelling and theatre for all the family? The Labyrinth Arts Festival will take place at…
POOLE Lighthouse and Pound Arts at Corsham are among the venues for a June tour that explores the stories and songs of the Isles of Scilly. Lost Songs of Scilly is a collaboration between Piers Lewin and John Patrick Elliott, creating music to celebrate and explore a sense of these very special islands off the…
ONE of the world’s finest klezmer bands, She’Koyokh, seven virtuoso musicians who play traditional music from the Balkans and Turkey, return to Dorset for two concerts with Artsreach, the county’s touring arts charity, at the Mowlem theatre in Dorset on Saturday 25th May and the Exchange at Sturminster Newton on Sunday 26th, both at 7.30pm…..
NEW folk duo Good Habits come to Poole’s Lighthouse arts centre on Wednesday 22nd May, as part of a tour that is supported by Help Musicians, PRS, The Alan Surtees Trust and The Bert Jansch Foundation. One of the UK’s most exciting new names on the folk scene, Good Habits have been winning awards and…
THE Bath Festivals start on Friday 17th May, with the Party in the City – Bath’s biggest free event, so no need to book – followed by nine days of music and literary events, from peerless Renaissance choral music to Irish folk, from best-selling novelists to top broadcasters, historic walks and many other fascinating events….
THIS year may be the last major Second World War commemoration, with the 80th anniversary of the D-Day landings, the beginning of the end of the war in Europe, as huge numbers of Allied troops gathered along the south and west coast of England, preparing to invade France and free Europe from the curse of…
FOLK quartet Dallahan’s founding member and frontman Jack Badcock releases his first solo album, Cosmography, early in May, and is heading out on a 16-venue UK tour to introduce his many fans to the new songs. He will be at Bridport’s British Legion Hall on Saturday 18th May, and at Ashburton Arts Centre two days…