Frome Festival Presents a Bumper Programme for All

From the 5th to the 14th July 2024, Frome Festival plans to up the game of this wonderful and lively town with a bumper programme for all….. 

In over sixty-one venues across Frome and surrounding villages, Frome Festival is gearing up for its biggest ever programme, with 250 events taking place over 10 days. This year’s theme celebrates 60 years of Roald Dahl’s ‘Charlie & the Chocolate Factory’, featuring artwork by illustrator Sholto Walker depicting Willy Wonka striding down the streets of Frome. To celebrate this theme, five Golden Tickets will be hidden at various Festival events with winners receiving a scrumdiddlyumptious spending spree at Frome’s local chocolatier and café, Choc et al.

The community arts festival has been a popular fixture in the town since 2001 and aims to offer something for everyone, young and old, including different types of music, theatre, comedy, spoken word, art, dance, film, workshops, children’s events, and food or drink experiences. Expect a dash of Frome’s signature quirkiness!

Children can enjoy bouldering workshops, comic art masterclasses, science exploration of pondlife, theatre productions, a Willy Wonka Rave, outdoor shows and so much more.

And Frome Festival is teaming up with the popular Frome Independent Market on Sunday 7th July, taking over their entertainment stages with music, street theatre, and dance.

Headliners for 2024 include internationally acclaimed bass-baritone, Sir Willard White, Jenny Eclair, Richard Herring, Paul Mason, Old Time Sailors, Swinging at the Cotton Club, Alberta Cross, Raghu Dixit, Peatbog Faeries. Alongside one of Frome’s favourite free events, the Festival Food Feast, returning for a celebration of amazing international street food, live music and entertainment. Sponsored by local Frome company Lilley’s Cider.

Other highlights include hilarious stand-up comic Jenny Eclair at the Merlin Theatre, the first woman to win the coveted Perrier Award at Edinburgh Festival in 1995 and hasn’t stopped banging on about it since. India’s biggest cultural & musical export, Raghu Dixit is returning to the Cheese & Grain for the Frome Festival after his triumphant debut last year. 

The spectacular Swinging at the Cotton Club is a visual and musical feast paying homage to legends such as Duke Ellington, Ella Fitzgerald, and Count Basie with breathtaking dance routines. In the atmospheric setting of Holy Trinity Church, renowned organ virtuoso David Bednall will provide an improvised soundtrack to the classic 1922 horror movie, Nosferatu.

There’s raucous Old Time Sailors, former economics editor of Newsnight and Channel 4 and a regular Guardian contributor, Paul Mason presenting this year’s Bob Morris Lecture, a keynote speech that is an annual highlight of the Festival programme. Legendary stand-up comic Richard Herring presents his brand-new tour show where he talks bollocks about his recent experience with testicular cancer, at the Cheese & Grain, and Scottish trailblazers Peatbog Faeries also appear at the big Cheese, with a glorious mixture of traditional sounds and dance-floor grooves creating a hypnotic sound that no-one can resist dancing to.

Tickets go on sale from Sunday 19th May at 10am through www.fromefestival.co.uk 

BROCHURES detailing all events are available to pick up from the Cheese & Grain, local libraries, information points and many other locations across Frome and the surrounding area. An online version of the brochure is available here.

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