Suffolk Villages 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.
Lavenham is arguably England's most complete medieval streetscape, a genuine conservation set-piece with real amenities, an award-winning farmers market, and enough independent cafes, pubs and galleries to fill an unhurried day with ease.
Cottages, B&Bs and hotels near Lavenham, 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