"A purpose-built opera house in a Cotswolds village presents Wagner, Handel, Verdi and Humperdinck across a full summer season, one of the UK's most ambitious small opera festivals in a setting of extraordinary rural beauty."
Longborough Festival Opera
"A cliff-top open-air theatre carved from Cornish granite above Porthcurno Bay, where productions from Shakespeare to musicals run each summer with the Atlantic as backdrop and Rowena Cade's extraordinary creation as the stage."
Minack Theatre Season
"Over 330 artists open bars, barns, cafes, churches and hallways across Warwickshire and Coventry for two weeks, creating a self-guided trail through villages and towns where you can meet makers working in their own spaces."
Warwickshire Open Studios Summer Art Weeks
"Chester's Victorian park hosts a full summer season of theatre from late June through early September, with Shakespeare, new writing and family shows performed in an intimate outdoor setting a short walk from the city walls."
Grosvenor Park Open Air Theatre
"Three days of curated music, theatre, comedy, literature and family events in the historic grounds of Repton School and village, a South Derbyshire market town with 1,400 years of history as a quiet setting for a quietly brilliant festival."
Repton Festival
"Six opera productions, including four world premieres, fill Buxton Opera House and the Pavilion Gardens across 18 July days, making this Peak District spa town's festival one of the most ambitious programmes of rare and new opera anywhere in Britain."
Buxton International Festival
"Five Shakespeare productions performed in the candlelit college gardens of King's, Trinity, St John's and Downing every evening from mid-July through August, the UK's best-loved open-air Shakespeare festival."
Cambridge Shakespeare Festival
"The medieval market town of Petworth, where Turner painted and Constable walked in the grounds of Petworth House, hosts its summer festival of classical music, literature and the arts across July and August, using the town's churches, the Leconfield Hall and the great house itself as venues in one of England's most quietly distinguished small festivals."
Petworth Festival
"Sixteen days of classical music, jazz and spoken word in the churches, halls and historic spaces of a handsome Sussex market town. Sheku Kanneh-Mason among the 2026 headliners."
Petworth Summer Festival
"Sixty artists scatter site-specific work themed on Ritual through three acres of semi-wild meadow, pond and woodland around a Tudor farmhouse."
Raveningham Sculpture Trail
"For ten July days, Ventnor's clifftop streets, caves, gardens and secret spaces become venues for over 130 shows spanning circus, comedy, cabaret and family theatre in the Isle of Wight's multi-award winning arts festival."
Ventnor Fringe Festival
"The world's largest crime writing festival packs four July days with over 140 authors for its biggest year in 23 editions, with Ann Cleeves, Anthony Horowitz and David Baldacci among the names filling Harrogate's Old Swan Hotel."
Theakston Old Peculier Crime Writing Festival
"Fairies, alchemists, water nymphs and wizards take over a moated Tudor manor's gardens for a weekend of enchanted imagination where dressing up is warmly expected."
Magic Weekend at Kentwell Hall
✦ Weird & Wonderful"Singers and players gather from across the world to perform opera and a new chamber version of Britten's War Requiem inside a tiny medieval collegiate church a mile from the wild North Cornwall coast."
St Endellion Summer Festival
"A fortnight of concerts, masterclasses and ensemble music-making at Gresham's School in the Georgian market town of Holt, continuing the tradition of the renowned Dartington International Summer School in a Norfolk setting."
Music Summer School and Festival
"Over 180 artists open front rooms, garages, sheds and gardens in this East Neuk fishing village for eight August days, turning Pittenweem's harbourside streets into the most personal and intimate art festival in Scotland."
Pittenweem Arts Festival
"The 40th anniversary edition fills Sherwood Forest with jousting tournaments, medieval encampments, archery demonstrations and arena performances across three weekends in August, drawing tens of thousands into the ancient Nottinghamshire woodland."
Robin Hood Festival
"An open-air Shakespeare company performing since 1964, now staged in the purpose-built amphitheatre at Canford School near Wimborne, with The Tempest on the programme and a picnic lawn under Dorset skies."
Brownsea Open Air Theatre
"Ten August days and over 200 events transform this castle town into a celebration of music, drama, street art and bathtub racing, with Shakespeare performed in the Arundel Castle gardens each evening as the sun goes down."
Arundel Festival
"Music, talks and art in the mid-Wales town that was once Owain Glyndwr's seat of parliament."
Machynlleth Festival
"A tiny border town becomes a hotbed of brand new classical music, championing living composers and women composers in churches and halls scattered through the Welsh Marches."
Presteigne Festival
"The final ever edition of a 40-year tradition brings Renaissance and Baroque voices to the ancient wool-trade churches of Lavenham, Kersey and Clare for one last magnificent farewell."
Suffolk Villages Festival
"Held alongside the Cowal Highland Gathering, the Cowal Fringe fills Dunoon's streets and gardens with additional performances, street arts and local entertainment celebrating the broader artistic life of this Firth of Clyde town."
Cowal Fringe Festival
"The Rhys Thomas James Pantyfedwen Eisteddfod, held over August Bank Holiday in a Ceredigion university town, with choral, poetry and prose competitions continuing a Welsh cultural tradition of centuries."
Lampeter Pantyfedwen Eisteddfod
"For 16 September days, hundreds of artists and makers open studios, homes and galleries across the Lewes District villages from Lewes to Seaford, Newhaven and the surrounding countryside in its 32nd year as the South East's most accessible open art festival."
Artwave Festival
"Over 100 makers fill the stunning grounds of Cardigan Castle for three days of sculpture, demonstrations, walk-about theatre, Welsh language workshops and the best of contemporary British craft overlooking the River Teifi."
Craft Festival Wales
"Every September the cobbled streets and cottages of this dramatic Yorkshire fishing village open as pop-up galleries for around 100 artists, with heritage talks, lighting installations and live music filling the weekend."
Staithes Festival of Arts and Heritage
"The walled harbour town of Tenby hosts a week of exhibitions, concerts, comedy, poetry and visual arts each September when the summer crowds have gone and the light on the Pembrokeshire coast turns the town's coloured houses into something you want to paint rather than just photograph."
Tenby Arts Festival
"Over 140 artists throw open homes, gardens and public spaces across the historic Derbyshire market town for one autumn weekend, transforming Wirksworth into a walking gallery with free shuttle buses, street music and food stalls."
Wirksworth Festival Art and Architecture Trail
"Young world-class singers and players perform vocal and chamber music in the ancient parish churches of the Dartmoor villages around Chagford, with free entry for the under-25s."
Whiddon Autumn Festival
"In its 21st year, Melbourne Festival opens private gardens, historic halls and family homes not usually accessible to the public, creating a walking art trail through this South Derbyshire market town for 172 artists across 65 venues."
Melbourne Festival Art and Architecture Trail
"Five days of classical music, recitals and choral performances in and around the magnificent 7th-century Hexham Abbey, one of the finest ecclesiastical settings for live music in northern England."
Hexham Abbey Festival of Music and Arts
"Scotland's National Book Town hosts its 25th festival across ten days and 200 events in this Galloway village of fifteen bookshops, where authors, musicians and artists fill the town hall, bookshops and gardens with literature, music and theatre."
Wigtown Book Festival
"Ten days of author talks, debates and performances filling the regatta town of Henley-on-Thames each October, one of England's most distinguished literary festivals in one of its most beautiful river settings."
Henley Literary Festival
"The world's oldest literary festival fills Cheltenham's Regency venues for ten October days with 500 events, from Booker Prize winners to children's authors, making it the essential autumn gathering for book lovers."
Cheltenham Literature Festival
"Violinist Rachel Podger leads world-class period-instrument music in the intimate churches and halls of a small market town wrapped in the Brecon Beacons."
Brecon Baroque Festival
"Two weeks of classical concerts, theatre, circus, talks and family events filling Canterbury Cathedral and historic venues across this ancient city, one of England's longest-running arts festivals and the cultural heartbeat of Kent each autumn."
Canterbury Festival
"A weekend festival drawing poets from across the world to the Suffolk coast each November, with readings, talks and performances filling Aldeburgh's Jubilee Hall and seafront venues in one of England's most concentrated celebrations of poetry."
Poetry in Aldeburgh
"A small Exmoor town on the banks of the River Barle draws the likes of Michael Morpurgo and Patrick Gale for an intimate four-day celebration of reading."
Dulverton Exmoor Literary Festival
"A man hidden under five stone of twisted straw dances through a Fenland town leading molly and clog sides, before the bear is ceremonially burned the next day."
Whittlesea Straw Bear Festival
✦ Weird & Wonderful"Britain's oldest and largest open studios festival, Oxfordshire Artweeks unlocks over a thousand artists' homes, rural studios, Cotswold village halls, and historic gardens across the county for three free weeks each May."
Oxfordshire Artweeks
"A fortnight-long festival rooted in Purbeck since 2001, combining open studios across the Isle of Purbeck with world-class concerts, exhibitions at Rollington Barn and the National Trust's Corfe Castle visitor centre, and a dedicated young artists programme."
Purbeck Art Weeks Festival
"Founded in 1988 in a Welsh border booktown, this eleven-day festival draws over 150,000 visitors to hear writers, scientists, comedians and policymakers debate ideas across more than 600 events on the edge of the Bannau Brycheiniog National Park."
Hay Festival
"Throughout June, Flamborough villagers fill their gardens and doorsteps with elaborate flowerpot models of Elvis, Spiderman and beloved characters, turning this headland village into a free family trail that has been featured on BBC News."
Flamborough Flowerpot Festival
"Six days of talks, debates, demonstrations and interactive events bringing together Nobel laureates, astronauts and leading scientists to Cheltenham Racecourse each June in the UK's premier science festival."
Cheltenham Science Festival
"Scotland's multi-award winning children's festival in the castle grounds of Tullibole Castle: 90 all-inclusive activities from circus to nature play, music, storytelling and a peacock-dotted campsite described as the happiest place in Scotland."
Wildhood Festival
"For 16 June days, 152 artists across Surrey open their studios, gardens, barns and homes as galleries, with self-guided village art trails including the Hindhead Art Trail guiding visitors through the county's creative heartland."
Surrey Artists Open Studios
"The classical festival founded by Benjamin Britten, centred on the concert hall at Snape Maltings."
Aldeburgh Festival
"A two-week arts festival in one of the Yorkshire Dales' most-loved market villages, with theatre, music, comedy and workshops spread through the cobbled square and surrounding dale."
Grassington Festival
"The UK's largest palaeontology festival spreads talks, palaeoart workshops and hands-on science across a Jurassic Coast town where Mary Anning once hunted fossils."
Lyme Regis Fossil Festival
"The medieval market town of Ruthin in the Vale of Clwyd hosts a summer celebration of contemporary craft at its nationally acclaimed Craft Centre, where the permanent galleries are joined by outdoor makers markets, demonstrations and workshops in the walled courtyard of a converted medieval building."
Ruthin Craft Centre Festival
"The 32nd year of a world-class classical music festival in a Roman village near York, where the Times said it is well on its way to being one of the leading fixtures on the calendar and where the Orchestra of Opera North opens the programme in a meadow."
Northern Aldborough Festival
"Ten years of this boutique midsummer festival deep in a North Yorkshire valley, with reggae, ska, folk and blues on woodland stages, art installations among the trees, craft workshops and the kind of community feel that only an independent festival still run with genuine love can produce."
Willowman Festival
"Wales's oldest classical music festival, held in the timbered hall and gardens of Gregynog near Newtown."
Gregynog Festival
"A small volunteer-run seaside festival spills Morris sides, ceilidhs and folk music across the back beach and seafront of a Devon estuary town."
Teignmouth Folk Festival
"Forty years of world-class orchestral, folk and jazz music performed in a soaring medieval wool church at the heart of one of Essex's most perfectly preserved small towns."
Thaxted Festival
"The UK's biggest poetry festival fills a black-and-white timbered Herefordshire town with ten days of readings, workshops and spoken word."
Ledbury Poetry Festival
"The fishing villages of the East Neuk of Fife host one of Scotland's finest chamber music festivals each July, with world-class ensembles playing in village halls, old granaries and stone-vaulted churches a few yards from the North Sea, where lobster creels are stacked outside and the smell of the harbour drifts through the open doors."
East Neuk Festival
"Artists across the chalk downs throw open their working studios for a sprawling free art trail through some of the loveliest scenery in the North Wessex Downs."
Marlborough Open Studios