Purbeck Art Weeks Festival

PAW Festival 2025 bursts with music, storytelling, and artistic inspiration across three vibrant weekends, featuring nine concerts, an open mic poetry event, an illustrated talk and three workshops.

We open with the theatrical Apollo’s Cabinet, a multi-award-winning ensemble that, with soprano Angela Hicks, brings to life the captivating story of 18th-century actress Kitty Clive. The Spanish-Portuguese string trio Ayres Extemporae will deliver virtuosic interpretations of JS Bach and his predecessors, joined by PAW’s music director, soprano Hannah Ely.

The festival’s final weekend includes a coffee concert at Encombe House and an illustrated talk on myths and monsters with award-winning local author Nick Jubber, and Tim Laycock. It culminates in a magical outdoor performance of Purcell’s The Fairy Queen at Careys Secret Garden, where professional musicians and local children unite in an enchanting, picnic-style event—capturing all that PAW stands for.

For the first time, we’re introducing a Festival within a Festival! From 30th May to 1st June, enjoy five captivating concerts for a discounted price:

Stile Antico, the Grammy-winning vocal ensemble, marks Palestrina’s quincentenary with their renowned polyphony. The BBC New Generation Baroque Ensemble Augelletti, joined by countertenor Alexander Chance, presents a programme complemented by a talk on Handel’s art collection.

Saraband & The Opera Company bring a dramatic staging of French cantatas, and as a late-night highlight (another first), Ensemble Gamut!, a Finnish trio, fuses medieval and Finnish folk traditions with stunning electronic soundscapes.

Rounding off the weekend, PAW regular Toby Carr, with Elizabeth Kenny and Nicholas Mulroy, presents Cubaroque—a fusion of 17th-century European and modern Latin American music.