Thursday 25 Saturday 27 Sunday 28
Music – Acoustic
Alan Brown Guitarist/Composer
Alan Brown
Original Instrumental music creating stories through unfolding layers of sound
Friday 12:00-13:00
Pass-The-Hat / Pay What It’s Worth
Bell St United Church Map
Music – Acoustic
The Rhythm Junkie
Alan Newport
Very experienced local performer with a lifetime’s experience in entertainment. Singer guitarist playing well known covers…a real crowd pleaser performance guaranteed.
Friday 12:00-13:00
Pass-The-Hat / Pay What It’s Worth
Grosvenor Arms Hotel – Courtyard Map
Children’s
Through the Looking Glass
Hedgehog Theatre
From comedian and writer Jacob Hulland, comes a new adaptation of an old tale. Have you ever stepped through a looking glass? Join Alice as she climbs into a world of bossy chess pieces, talking flowers, a woman made of egg and a topsy-turvy world where opposite day is every day! A family interactive show based on Lewis Carroll’s classic tale, that is as colourful as it is silly.
Friday 12:00-13:00
Pay On The Door – Adults – £10
Children – £6
Family (4 people maximum 2 adults) – £25
Grosvenor Arms Hotel – Assembly Room Map
Jinder at The Fringe
Jinder
Jinder is a songwriter and storyteller based in Dorset. Best known for modern folk classic ‘Keep Me In Your Heart’ – an evergreen song which topped the download charts in eight countries after being featured in the successful British movie ‘Fisherman’s Friends’ in 2019. Jinder has released thirteen critically acclaimed albums to date, for five different labels, including Sony BMG and Universal.
Friday 12:45-13:15
Pass-The-Hat / Pay What It’s Worth
Swans Yard Map
Music – Acoustic
KD
Back in 2024 for their 2nd consecutive Shaftesbury Fringe Festival, acoustic covers duo KD are looking forward to sharing a varied set including Jeff Buckley, Ella Fitzgerald, Nina Simone, Alicia Keys, Oasis, Maneskin and many others to transport you to a different plain, chill out to some acoustic vibes and escape the times with everyone welcome x
Friday 13:00-14:00
Pass-The-Hat / Pay What It’s Worth
Rolt Millennium Green Map
Hardy Annuals (12+)
Jan Wyld, Richard Willetts, Richard Hall
Thomas Hardy was fascinated with music; again and again it exerts influence over the characters and action in his poems and novels. With the help of a violin (Hardy’s own instrument) we explore this fascination with music and readings both serious and comic, tragic and farcical.
Friday 13:30-14:30
Pass-The-Hat / Pay What It’s Worth
Gold Hill Museum Map
The Queen Of Queen
Samantha
Sing along to your favourite Queen songs with the mercurial Samantha – the Shaftesbury-based world-class vocalist who has performed in the West End, Las Vegas, Japan, South Africa and extensively across the UK.
Samantha will rock you with her special kind of magic, and at the end you’ll insist that the show must go on.
Song sheets will be provided, so you can all be the champions!
Friday 14:00-15:00
Pay On The Door – £10
Grosvenor Arms Hotel – Assembly Room Map
Theatre & Musicals
The Shaftesbury Tales (Suitable For Children)
Treehouse Theatre
FAMILY THEATRE SHOW. Inspired by Chaucer, and the terrible fate of teenage King Edward the Martyr in Corfe, ‘The Shaftesbury Tales’ is walking from Corfe to Shaftesbury in July, village to village, stopping to perform hilarious and interactive family shows along the way. Expect murder and miracles, music and mayhem from Dorset in the Dark Ages. Come along to a free workshop if you’d like to perform with us.
Friday 14:00-15:30
Tickets In Advance / On The Door – £10 adults / £6 children / + free workshop 11am-12noon
St. Peter’s Church Map
Comedy
Laugh at the Shaft (18+)
Travis Booth-Millard and Liam Wilcox
One has his head in the clouds (figuratively speaking) and the other is often taken lying down (figuratively and literally speaking). Join this surreal pair of comedians as they tackle hard hitting subjects such as dating, vaping and nursery rhymes.
Both Travis Booth-Millard and Liam Wilcox have been comedy competition finalists and will be sure to get you slapping those thighs!
Friday 15:00-16:00
Pass-The-Hat / Pay What It’s Worth
Gold Hill Museum Map
Sereniform
Sereniform out of Bournemouth welcomes all as they deliver a pop fusion set of originals and covers promising a rocking show
Friday 15:00-17:00
Pass-The-Hat / Pay What It’s Worth
Ye Olde Two Brewers – Garden Map
Comedy
Grease Monkey (16+)
Tim Biglowe
Join Tim (A runner up at West End New Act Of The Year) for his new stand-up show. Starting married life living on a canal boat, this laid-back hippy panics – and takes a job as a mechanic. All to be viewed as a ‘proper married bloke’. Can this calamitous captain transform into a grease monkey? Or will his in-laws’ dubious scheme offer him a way out of the rat race?
Friday 15:30-16:15
Pass-The-Hat / Pay What It’s Worth
Black Cactus Map
Music – Acoustic
Americana, Country Rock
Can’t Make Monday
Can’t Make Monday are an americana, country rock covers band. Either an acoustic trio or four piece electric.
Friday 16:00-17:00
Pass-The-Hat / Pay What It’s Worth
Shaftesbury Abbey Museum And Garden Map
Poetry & Spoken Word
Dylan Squared (12+)
Roland Jones
I compare and contrast the work of Dylan Thomas and Bob Dylan through performance of some of their classics. Poetry and acoustic guitar work.
Friday 16:00-17:00
Charity Collection – www.senseinternational.org.uk
King Alfred’s Kitchen – Nuns’ Passage Map
Echo (12+)
ALVIRA
Echo is a cinematic gig theatre piece exploring the sounds, sentiments and movements of the echo through music, poetry, and movement. It explores the journey of a young woman, as she grows through experiences which vibrate and echo through her life – a journey of discovery…
ALVIRA is a solo music artist who creates cinematic gig theatre performances. Trained at The Royal Ballet School, Tring Park and Drama Centre London, she creates theatrical worlds that are shared with audiences through spoken word, dance and music. Her work is inspired by folk, sacred choral, film and pop music.
Friday 16:00-16:45
Tickets In Advance / On The Door – £10 adults / £5 concession
Book
Shaftesbury Arts Centre – Theatre Map
Hardy Annuals (12+)
Jan Wyld, Richard Willetts, Richard Hall
Thomas Hardy was fascinated with music; again and again it exerts influence over the characters and action in his poems and novels. With the help of a violin (Hardy’s own instrument) we explore this fascination with music and readings both serious and comic, tragic and farcical.
Friday 16:00-17:00
Pass-The-Hat / Pay What It’s Worth
Bell St United Church Map
Music – Acoustic
Only Losers Write on Bridges
Steve Dagleish
“Utterly lovely, like an angrier Nick Drake” BBC Introducing.
Steve performs a selection of his original songs, with his acoustic band, at this, his Fringe debut.
Friday 16:00-17:00
Pass-The-Hat / Pay What It’s Worth
Grosvenor Arms Hotel – Courtyard Map
Richard Foreman: Technophobe! (14+)
Richard Foreman
A light-hearted look at the terrors technology inspires in me and many others, or possibly a rant from a grumpy geezer who was better suited to the twentieth century, or possibly another enjoyable and thought-provoking selection of poems & stories from the pen and keyboard of yours truly. Lend me your ears, people, and I’ll pay you the interest in ear-wax.
Friday 16:00-17:00
Pass-The-Hat / Pay What It’s Worth
Grosvenor Arms Hotel – Assembly Room Map
Other – Health and Wellbeing
Singing Bowl Chill Out (12+)
centreforpuresound.org
Lie down, relax, and allow the Pure Sounds of a crystal and Tibetan bowl soundbath plus sacred vocal overtoning take you into the deeper brainwave states of ‘the relaxation response’, while charging and balancing the aura and chakras of the subtle body, and detoxing the physical body.
Friday 17:00-18:00
Tickets In Advance – £12 – phone 01935 389655 or
Book
Bell St United Church Map
Tattie Bogle
Margaret and John Cluett
Acoustic folk music with traditional and contemporary songs
Friday 17:00-17:45
Pass-The-Hat / Pay What It’s Worth
Shaftesbury Lido Map
Comedy
Grease Monkey (16+)
Tim Biglowe
Join Tim (A runner up at West End New Act Of The Year) for his new stand-up show. Starting married life living on a canal boat, this laid-back hippy panics – and takes a job as a mechanic. All to be viewed as a ‘proper married bloke’. Can this calamitous captain transform into a grease monkey? Or will his in-laws’ dubious scheme offer him a way out of the rat race?
Friday 17:30-18:15
Pass-The-Hat / Pay What It’s Worth
Gold Hill Museum Map
Music – Acoustic
Kiara & Gwil Duo
Gwilym Knight, Kiara Holley-Paliano
Kiara & Gwil started playing together when Kiara was only 10, and Gwil was still a shy but talented pianist. Nowadays they have both grown and perform with many other musicians but reunite occasionally, playing blues, soul, rock n roll songs from the likes of Nina Simone, Elvis, Christine McVie. You’ll be wowed with stunning vocals that will bring a tear to your eye and maybe get your toes tapping
Friday 17:30-18:30
Pass-The-Hat / Pay What It’s Worth
Potting Shed – Garden Map
Music – Acoustic
Steamboat Diplomacy with the Artful Badgers
The Artful Badgers
Hailing from Bath’s southern boondocks, The Artful Badgers bring you a toe-tapping, century-spanning concoction of transatlantic gypsy folk-swing.
Friday 17:30-19:00
Pass-The-Hat / Pay What It’s Worth
Ye Olde Two Brewers – Garden Map
Poetry & Spoken Word
Glory of the Garden
PlayGC Theatre Company
Back by popular demand, last year’s award winning show – a glorious anthology of poetry, prose and songs, delivered by five versatile performers, on the theme of gardens and the gardeners who tend them. From Gertrude Jekyll to Pam Ayres, from An English Country Garden to The Secret Garden, from the lyrical to limericks, this is a flowerbed full of delights.
Friday 18:00-19:00
Tickets In Advance / On The Door
Shaftesbury Abbey Museum And Garden Map
Hardy Annuals (12+)
Jan Wyld, Richard Hall & Richard Willetts
Thomas Hardy was fascinated with music; again and again it exerts influence over the characters and action in his poems and novels. With the help of a violin (Hardy’s own instrument) we explore this fascination with music and readings both serious and comic, tragic and farcical.
Friday 18:00-19:00
Pass-The-Hat / Pay What It’s Worth
Ye Olde Two Brewers – Skittle Alley Map
Comedy
Laugh at the Shaft (18+)
Travis Booth-Millard and Liam Wilcox
One has his head in the clouds (figuratively speaking) and the other is often taken lying down (figuratively and literally speaking). Join this surreal pair of comedians as they tackle hard hitting subjects such as dating, vaping and nursery rhymes.
Both Travis Booth-Millard and Liam Wilcox have been comedy competition finalists and will be sure to get you slapping those thighs!
Friday 18:00-19:00
Pass-The-Hat / Pay What It’s Worth
Royal British Legion Hall Map
Variety & Cabaret
Matrix of Magic
The Great Baldini
The Great Baldini, Emperor of Illusion, Prince of Prestidigitation, Maharajah of Mystery, presents an extraordinary hour of effects, illusions and miracles from his own private collection. Painstakingly assembled over the years from all corners of the world, Baldini has selected his personal favourites. He tells their stories, weaving a matrix of mystery that questions whether can believe our eyes
Friday 18:00-19:00
Tickets In Advance / On The Door – £9 Adults
£7 Children
£25 Family Ticket
Shaftesbury Arts Centre – Theatre Map
Theatre & Musicals
Life Under The Sun – Part 1 (14+)
Stephen Bathurst
4**** – “STARTLING & AMBITIOUS”
“What good is it to gain the whole world but lose your soul?”
A theatre show that explores the biggest question of all: What’s the point?
Features underpants, pompous man-servants, self-deprecating witticisms, an existential crisis and one giant hangover.
King Solomon had it all…
Friday 18:30-19:30
Pass-The-Hat / Pay What It’s Worth
Bell St United Church Map
Music – Pop, Rock & Soul
Encrypted Love
DJ Bongo, Indra Red, Dr Dale
This three piece produces upbeat engaging music that crosses between rock, pop and prog rock genres.
Our aim is to get feet tapping and bodies moving. Our tracks are about positivity, inclusion and happiness.
We were well received last year at the Fringe and want to do even better this year!
Friday 19:00-21:00
Pass-The-Hat / Pay What It’s Worth
Heritage Suite Map
Music – Choral
Haul on the Bowlin’
Lyme Bay Moonrakers
This unique shanty group from Lyme Regis, bring you ‘Haul on the Bowlin’ – a musical celebration of the timeless connection women and men have to the sea. Come and hear traditional shanties, work songs, ballads and humorous songs from near and far, in bold, fresh, new arrangements. Join us as we embark on a musical voyage accompanied by soaring vocal harmonies and heart-warming melodies.
Friday 19:00-20:00
Pass-The-Hat / Pay What It’s Worth
St. Peter’s Church Map
Music – Acoustic
Nick Coleman
Nick brings dynamic guitar and powerful vocals, alongside a loop station , for a show that captivates and invites participation in equal measure . A seasoned performer , Nick leaves little to be desired in effort . Dovetailing his own material with classics from across the years and beyond , there’s usually twists and turns aplenty . Expect the unexpected!
Friday 19:00-20:30
Pass-The-Hat / Pay What It’s Worth
Pitchers Bar and Club Map
Through the Looking Glass
Hedgehog Theatre
From comedian and writer Jacob Hulland, comes a new adaptation of an old tale. Have you ever stepped through a looking glass? Join Alice as she climbs into a world of bossy chess pieces, talking flowers, a woman made of egg and a topsy-turvy world where opposite day is every day! A family interactive show based on Lewis Carroll’s classic tale, that is as colourful as it is silly.
Friday 19:00-20:00
Pay On The Door – Adults – £10
Children – £6
Family – (4 people, maximum 2 adults) – £25
St. Peter’s Church Hall Map
Poetry & Spoken Word
Freud, Erikson & Me (16+)
Andy Gilbert
Comedy, poetry, and psychological theories collide as ‘The UK’s #1 Poetry Teacher’ tries to find out why he writes what he does. Strong language, adult themes and contextual vulgarity.
‘Very funny, surprisingly moving and definitely informative’- Faversham Fringe Review
‘Very funny and at times thought provoking’ -Buxton Fringe Review
Friday 19:30-20:30
Free
Gold Hill Museum Map
Music – Pop, Rock & Soul
LIVE At The Grosvenor Arms (18+)
Tom & The Clementynes
Fronted by Shaftesbury local musician Tom Clements, Tom & The Clementynes are not to be missed! They don’t often play many shows in their local area, but when they do – judging by their past fringe shows – they are always playing to a full house! With cover versions of popular pop, rock & indie anthems you’ll be dancing and singing the night away for sure!
Friday 19:30-21:30
Pass-The-Hat / Pay What It’s Worth
Grosvenor Arms Hotel – Courtyard Map
Shaftesbury Acoustic Cafe
Various
An evening of various musical acts from throughout the South West of England. Shaftesbury Acoustic Cafe is a quarterly event that has been running for the last 14 years and has been a constant feature of Shaftesbury Fringe. The quality and variety of the acts makes this a hugely popular every year.
Friday 19:30-22:00
Charity Collection – Free but donations welcomed for local Shaftesbury charity Open House.
Father’s House Map
Comedy
A Jumped Up Country Boy (18+)
Matt Roseblade
Ex-shepherd, ex-frogspawn farmer, current international IT consultant – How did Matt Roseblade get here? And how much longer can it last? Should he get old like Morrissey has? Or are there better ways to blaze through his last decades?
Friday 20:00-21:00
Pass-The-Hat / Pay What It’s Worth
Ye Olde Two Brewers – Skittle Alley Map
Comedy
Grease Monkey (16+)
Tim Biglowe
Join Tim (A runner up at West End New Act Of The Year) for his new stand-up show. Starting married life living on a canal boat, this laid-back hippy panics – and takes a job as a mechanic. All to be viewed as a ‘proper married bloke’. Can this calamitous captain transform into a grease monkey? Or will his in-laws’ dubious scheme offer him a way out of the rat race?
Friday 20:00-20:45
Pass-The-Hat / Pay What It’s Worth
Grosvenor Arms Hotel – Assembly Room Map
Comedy
GROTTO (16+)
Terry Victor
A legendary figure is in for some way out-of-season rehab. Is he the real thing or another otherwise unemployed actor between Santa gigs? This is a stockingful of zeitgeist-rattling, award-winning entertainment with the world’s most recognisable stand-up: a jolly, white-bearded, fat man who has seen the GROTTO from the dark side – tottering in stilettos while Xmas rapping as the Ho Ho Ho Sisters!
Friday 20:00-21:00
Tickets In Advance / On The Door
Shaftesbury Arts Centre – Theatre Map
Leave Them Wanting Less (14+)
Plastic Jeezus
Simon and Aaron are an award-winning, ukulele-pluckin’, deadpan comedy duo performing hilarious songs and stories, in their own straight-faced way. Leicester Comedy Festival sell out show. ‘Genuinely hilarious’ (Ed Byrne). ‘Dark, daft and bloody hilarious’ (Chris McCausland).
Friday 21:00-22:00
Pass-The-Hat / Pay What It’s Worth
Shaftesbury Arts Centre – Rutter Room Map
Music – Jazz & Blues
A Fabulous Night of 50s Swing and Rock’n’Roll
Simon Lane
Let yourself be transported back in time to an era of Copa-Cabana-Cool, Hollywood Glamour, and High School Hops as Simon performs a Marvellous Mix of Top Hits from the Fifties featuring classic songs by Frank Sinatra, Bobby Darin, Dean Martin, Elvis, Buddy Holy, Eddie Cochran and many more…!
Friday 21:30-23:30
Free
Shaston Social Club Map
Music – Pop, Rock & Soul
Ska Music is Dance Music
D’Ska Assassins
D’Ska Assassins are one of the region’s most popular ska bands, performing high energy ska music by the likes of Madness, The Specials and Bad Manners as well as their own infectious originals. They have performed live on radio and also headlined festivals all over the area. Their act is a high-tempo, energised set of ska music, guaranteed to get everyone up singing and dancing.
Friday 21:30-23:30
Free
Pitchers Bar and Club Map
The Fringe Afterparty (18+)
HOLDEN.
Pitchers Bar & Club’s resident DJ brings the party until 02:00 AM and is sure to get you up dancing like no one watching!
Friday 23:00-02:00
Free
Pitchers Bar and Club Map