The Kelverton Arts Festival will run for a tenth year this September, and for the first time since the storms it will do so under the restored roof of the Corn Exchange rather than in a hired marquee on the Common.
The programme leans local. Alongside touring folk acts and a chamber ensemble, organisers have made room for work rooted in the valley: a photography show on the vanished mills, a choir drawn from three village churches, and a late-night poetry bill open to anyone who signs up on the door.
Highlights this year
- A free daytime programme aimed at families in the Corn Exchange foyer.
- A guided walk tracing the old leat that once powered Millgate.
- A commissioned piece for brass band marking the venue’s reopening.
Tickets for the evening concerts are staggered so that the cheaper seats go on sale first, a policy the organisers introduced after criticism that the festival had drifted upmarket.
The restored hall seats fewer than the marquee did, so some events will sell out. The trade-off, organisers argue, is a festival that once again feels part of the town rather than pitched on the edge of it.
Related: Arts & Culture · Millgate almshouses museum
Further reading: About arts festivals
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