Poetry in Aldeburgh
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.
Aldeburgh punches well above its size: a genuinely independent high street stacked with serious food, a Michelin-noted restaurant, award-winning fish and chips, a long-standing CAMRA pub, and one of the finest stretches of Suffolk coast on its doorstep, all without a chain restaurant in sight.
Cottages, B&Bs and hotels near Aldeburgh, Suffolk.
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"Named for the spectral black dog that terrorised St Mary's Church in 1577, this brilliant folklore festival fills the town with art, parade, storytelling and a ritual burning of demons."
Black Shuck Festival
✦ Weird and Wonderful"Over 1,200 vehicles from 1928 to now sweep the driveway of a Grade I listed moated hall, with birds of prey, swing dancing and Grade I garden entry included in one day."
Festival of Classic and Sports Cars at Helmingham Hall
"A free three-day community celebration that grew from a grassroots music idea into Suffolk's friendliest festival, with tribute acts, children's workshops, street food and a stage for all."
Saxmundham Community Fest
"Suffolk's award-winning seaside carnival fills the shingle beach town of Aldeburgh across a summer Bank Holiday weekend, with a procession, 10K Mini Marathon, community events and the particular magic of carnival lights on the North Sea."
Aldeburgh Carnival
"402 years old and still going: the parade winds through the market town to the riverside quay for a weekend of live music, a fun dog show and genuine community spirit."
Beccles Carnival
"Three days of music, ale, art and family on a Suffolk estate, famed for its premieres and firsts and a reputation as one of the best-loved folk weekends in the country."
FolkEast
"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
"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 and Wonderful"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
"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
"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
"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