Swanage Folk Festival
The biggest dance festival in the UK brings over two hundred Morris and dance performances and fifty plus bands to fill a Dorset seaside town with colour and music.
A well-provisioned, genuinely busy Victorian seaside town with a heritage steam railway, a UNESCO coastline on its doorstep, a weekly market, over 60 places to eat and drink, and enough independent character to hold a visitor for a full and satisfying day.
Cottages, B&Bs and hotels near Swanage, Dorset.
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"Over 100 events in 8 days on the Jurassic Coast, with a Wild West theme for 2026, a carnival procession, air display, fireworks finale, Titan the Robot, Granny Turismo shopping trolley dancers and open water swimming, all free and raising £40k for local charities."
Swanage Carnival Week
"Hosted by actor Martin Clunes on his West Dorset farm near Beaminster, Buckham Fair is a classic countryside show fundraiser featuring heavy horses, dog shows, main ring displays and a funfair."
Buckham Fair
"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
"A two-day Dorset show on the August hillsides above Blackmore Vale, where the landscape itself is the argument for attending: old breeds in the ring, and Thomas Hardy countryside rolling away on every side."
Gillingham and Shaftesbury Show
"A working farm field below the silhouette of Corfe Castle. Five stages, four days, and the particular quiet of the Dorset hills when the music stops between sets."
Purbeck Valley Folk Festival
"One of the South West's premier agricultural exhibitions, held at the West Bay showground near Bridport with livestock, horses, homecrafts, horticulture and over 400 trade stands."
Melplash Agricultural Show
"A week of folk music, dance and song fills this Regency seaside town and its clifftop arena."
Sidmouth Folk Festival
"The home of Dartmoor step dance and broom dance competitions, with ferret racing, two village pubs full of music and the late Bob Cann's broad Devon welcome."
Dartmoor Folk Festival
"Father Time crowns the elected Queen of the Revel in this North Cornwall village on the Monday after August 12th, after which she leads a mounted procession to the Revel Ground for Cornish wrestling, fancy dress, dancing and feasting in a celebration that has marked the founding of the village since the medieval period."
Marhamchurch Revel
✦ Weird and Wonderful"The Levellers' fiercely independent family festival runs six stages with no sponsorship, a Magic Teapot, folk sessions and a different fancy-dress theme every Sunday."
Beautiful Days
"A Bank Holiday town takeover with an open-air FAR Stage, Betjeman Sessions, pub music and street entertainment all within walking distance in Wadebridge."
Cornwall Folk Festival
"A week of music, dance and song for adults of all abilities at England's national centre for folk arts, tucked into a manor in the Quantock Hills."
Halsway Folk Summer School