The full programme for the 2022 festival appears here in date order.
You can also home in on events that are particularly suited to children and families, Exhibitions, Workshops and Activities or Sporting/walking events or use our Calendar to see what’s on on a particular day.
Festival Saturday
From 10.00am until mid afternoon
Free
Centred on Mortimer Gardens, the programme includes entertainment for all the family the ever popular duck races, a market and many other activities across the town. Around the corner, the Market Street Traders will host a specialist Food Market, as well as extending out onto the street themselves. This area will also feature a variety of buskers during the day, including Rich and Luke on guitars, the Blues Triad and local folk band, the Fruitbowlers.
Entertainment in Mortimer Gardens 
10.00 Leo Live – singing and playing crowd pleasers
10.30 Punch and Judy – much loved puppet show all the way from Weymouth Beach
11.00 Circus Frantix – Children will have fun joining in with circus tricks
11.30 Leo Live entertains with more songs
12.00 Nailsworth Community Choir – Local singers perform lively songs from around the world
12.35 Honeymoon Swing taking us back in time with vintage songs
13.15 Nailsworth Primary School Choir – always a hit with their enthusiasm and lovely singing
13.45 More laughs with Punch and Judy
14.15 Fun circus tricks with Circus Frantix
14.45 Honeymoon Swing play more vintage music to finish the programme
Cotswold Costumes Exhibition
10.00am until 4.00pm
At Mortimer Rooms, GL6 0HT
Free
In 2022, Cotswold Costumes, Nailsworth’s own costume hire business is 40 years old. Come along and celebrate with us at our exhibition of photos and stories spanning those 40 years. Dress up in some of our iconic costumes and accessories. All welcome!
Meet the Artists at Three Storeys
10.00am until 3.00pm
At Three Storeys, GL6 0JF (entrance in Town Hall car park)
Free
Sally Clarke, Emily Lucas and Wendy Rhodes will be on hand with demonstrations and the chance to talk to each artist about their work. Emily Lucas and Wendy Rhodes are also running a workshop each, later in the week (see Workshop 1 and Workshop 2).
Kristine Raw - Art Exhibition
10.30am until 5.00pm
At The Old School House, Shortwood, GL6 0SH
Free
Quilt and textile artist Kristine Raw is opening her studio and Garden Room Art Gallery with items for sale, a chance to see working sketchbooks and pieces in progress. There will also be an exhibition of other invited artists. From Nailsworth take a stroll up through Shortwood to The Old School House, enjoy the exhibition and views of the valley. Light refreshments available.
Sports Fest
2.00pm until 4.00pm
At King George V Playing Field GL6 0HT
Free
If you and your family enjoy being active, 
come along to King George V playing fields for an afternoon of fun and fitness with Nailsworth Youth Club. Skipping, table tennis, badminton, tennis, hoops and balls are just some of the activities available. Entrance is free and refreshments will be provided. Boys and girls, mums, dads, grandparents and carers all welcome.
Ken Wood and The Mixers “Amazing Stories of Blues and Soul”
Support: G&T Blues
8.00 pm
At Town Hall GL6 0JF
£7
Ken Wood and The Mixers is a riotous, seven-piece troupe of gutbucket soul heroes, specialising in their own unique blend of bold, brassy soul, stomping R&B and ludicrous on-stage antics. “Amazing Stories of Blues and Soul” is the Mixers’ very own big stage show - a breathless musical journey to discover the roots of soul. Featuring the Mixers’ full seven-piece line-up, it takes audiences from the acoustic blues of the cotton fields to the big, brassy soul of James Brown and Otis Redding - with the stories, the songs and a wild stage show that captures the raw energy of the early days of rhythm and blues.
Support is provided by G&T Blues, comprising Grahame Newman on harmonica and vocals and Tim Hughes on guitars and vocals. G&T Blues play acoustic blues regularly at folk clubs and appeared at the Wine Shack at No. 7 during the 2021 Wotton Blues Festival. Tim presented his show “120 Years of the Blues” at the 2021 Nailsworth Festival.
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David Bullock “The ‘entangled bank’ is unravelling: Returning the weft and warp of wildlife to Gloucestershire”
3.00pm
At Mortimer Rooms, GL6 0HT
£5
In ‘On the Origin of Species’ Charles Darwin describes the complexity and beauty of an entangled bank. Since then, nature has declined, the planet is heating up and we are losing an intimacy with nature. In this talk, David will look at what we could do about this, in two places: The River Severn and the Forest of Dean. Wild boar, beavers and pine martens are already back in the Forest, and the Severn’s salt marsh and surrounding land locks up carbon and supports a huge number of shorebirds and wildfowl. But is there space and opportunity for them to be ecologically richer? How about large carnivores in the forest, and giant fish like Sturgeon in the river?
David was Head of Nature Conservation in the National Trust and he chairs Gloucestershire Wildlife Trust.
Liz Grand presents “Where is Mrs Christie?”
7.30 pm
At Town Hall GL6 0JF
£12
Agatha Christie was one of the greatest thriller writers of all time and certainly the most prolific. In 1926, she was at the centre of a mystery as perplexing as any of her fiction. Her crashed car was discovered in Surrey and the famous author was missing, presumed dead by many, for eleven days. However, she was eventually found at a luxury hotel in Harrogate. She claimed then, and for the rest of the life, that she was suffering from amnesia and remembered nothing. Neither the press nor the police believed her. Actor Liz Grand presents her new one-woman show ‘Where Is Mrs Christie?’ Did Agatha Christie lie, and if so, why? Was it a publicity stunt? Or was there a darker secret involved in this disappearance that was to affect her for the rest of her life? The answer to all these questions will, as in all good thrillers, be revealed!
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Simon McCoy in conversation
7.30 pm
At Egypt Mill GL6 0AE
£8
Television news presenter Simon McCoy has worked as royal correspondent for Sky; covered the Iraq War in Kuwait and Basra; presented BBC News at One and the GB News breakfast show. Much admired for his journalistic skills, he’s equally renowned for a dry sense of humour. Google him and you’ll find the famous clip where he mistakenly presented a live broadcast while holding a pack of printer paper instead of his iPad. And his pronouncement, during the wait for the birth of Prince George of Cambridge: ‘The news is there is no news.’ Simon will be in conversation with Katie Jarvis.
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Re-imagining Nailsworth - an experiential imaginarium
7.30pm
At Mortimer Rooms GL6 0DU
£5 / £2 concessions
This workshop is an opportunity to bathe in imagining the positive future you’d like to see, and what our town and community could become. The thinking behind this work is to create an irresistible vision of the future that can motivate us to make it happen.
Whilst it’s important to pay attention to what’s going wrong, and to try and avert catastrophe, there’s a danger that we spend too much time imagining bad outcomes, and this can increase our stress. By contrast, imagining positively increases our well-being, and can be a first step to making it a reality.
Participants will be invited to cultivate a vision of their ideal future, and then to find commonalities that can become a shared vision to work towards.
Facilitated by Bill Roberts and Sue Ryall in collaboration with Nailsworth Climate Action Network; limited to 25 participants.
To book: www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/re-imagining-nailsworth-tickets-319811824777
Natural Cookery School
Plant based cookery school and catering run by Erin Baker and team
4.00pm until 6.00pm
At Days Mill, GL6 0DU
Free
Join Erin and the team at for a dropin session to take a look around the cookery school and make your own nibbles! Plan for about a half an hour visit.
Booking advised on erin@naturalcookeryschool.com or 01453 823444.
Rob Harbron, Miranda Rutter & Sam Sweeny
The Nailsworth Festival Richard Valentine Memorial Folk Concert
7.30 pm
At Ruskin Mill GL6 0LA
£17
These three locally-based musicians have international reputations as performers, instrumentalists, collaborators and composers. They are united by their shared approach to music-making and their ability to breathe new life into ancient tunes with delight and spontaneity. This special concert will feature trio settings of traditional and original music, as well as solo and duo pieces. Rob Harbron, described by The Guardian as a ‘concertina wizard’, is a member of Leveret. Miranda Rutter (fiddle, viola) is a founder member of Methera and Sam Sweeney (BBC Folk Awards musician of the year 2015) is also a member of Leveret. Together these three musicians lead the English Acoustic Collective summer school at Ruskin Mill, and this one-off performance will encapsulate the musical philosophy that is at the core of that course. 
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To book please contact Ruskin Mill 01453 837537
Chloë “Space Aliens Ate My Story”
7.30 pm
At Three Storeys, GL6 0JF (entrance in Town Hall car park)
£8
From elves to UFOs, Chloë engages performance storytelling at warp 10. Outrageous, original and otherworldly! Come and join Chloë on her creative mission: to boldly take Story Cabaret where it’s never gone before. Spoken word cabaret blending comedy and fantasy for grown-ups. Years of travel fuel her multicultural repertoire. She’s a local favourite at Cheltenham Literature Festival “LitCrawl” nights. She’s been a support act for a pagan rock band and dares to take dragons to Wales. In 2019 she co-founded the Moving Stories Café project, a spoken word open mic session now running online. “A master storyteller” - Cotswold Life
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Three Storeys Workshop 1
‘Walk and Draw with Wendy Rhodes’
11.00am until 3.00pm
At Three Storeys, GL6 0JF (entrance in Town Hall car park)
£50
A sketching workshop for up to 6 people. Starting in the gallery with a talk and then heading out into the lanes and footpaths around Nailsworth. Participants should bring their own sketchbook and drawing equipment, appropriate walking footwear is advised. All abilities welcome.
Tickets available from Wendy Rhodes: wrhodesart@gmail.com
Candle and diffuser workshop with Littlecote Natural Luxuries
6.30pm
At 11 Fountain St, GL6 0BL
£40
During this fun 1.5-hour workshop, led by Liz Tucker, you’ll make soy wax scented candles and reed diffusers – ethically and naturally - and take your creations home afterwards! Littlecote Natural Luxuries is a family business, hand-making eco-friendly home fragrances and skin-loving natural toiletries from vegetable-based, organic ingredients and natural essential oils. A relaxed evening with nibbles and Prosecco.
Book directly on: 07955101352.
Moscow Drug Club
7.30 pm
At Town Hall GL6 0JF
£12
It’s a curious musical place, where certain elements of 1930’s Berlin Cabaret, Hot Club de France, Nuevo Tango & Gypsy Campfire meet, have a few to drink and stagger arm in arm into the darkness of some Eastern European cobbled street, on a mission to find the bar where Django Reinhardt & Tom Waits are having an afterhours jam with the local Tziganes. Combining their original material with songs by the likes of Jaques Brel, Leonard Cohen, Tom Waits & Eartha Kitt, Moscow Drug Club provide an intoxicating & intimate musical experience. Moscow Drug Club have played some great venues and festivals of note including: WOMAD, National Theatre London, International Gypsy Guitar Festival, Trowbridge Pump Festival, Edinburgh Jazz & Blues Festival and many others.
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Sorry, sold out. No more tickets available for this event.
Comedy with Paul Kerensa
7.30 pm
At Christ Church GL6 0DQ
£8
Winner of the BBC Radio Entertainment Contract Writer Titheridge Prize, Paul writes and script-edits for many comedies on BBC TV, Sky and other channels. He was on the British Comedy Award-winning writing team for ‘Miranda’, and has written on each series of Lee Mack’s sitcom ‘Not Going Out’. Paul is also one of the few to perform stand-up at both comedy clubs and churches, in bearpits and pulpits. This is very much a show for everyone - recommended 12A just because it’s not aimed at kids and there are no balloon animals. But it’s a clean show and great for all from archbishops to atheists. Organised by Churches Together.
Refreshments available.
“Hands on Harps Beginner’s Workshop”
Sessions 1 and 2
6.00pm - 7.00pm and 7.30pm - 8.30pm
At Subscription Rooms, GL6 0JB
£10
Have you ever played a harp? Here is your chance to have a go. No musical experience needed; this is a simple session in a small group (limited to 8 per session). You’ll be surprised how easy it is to play a simple melody in no time!
(Tickets from the festival website only, alternatively please phone 01453 833658)
Sessions 3 and 4 are on Saturday 28th May
Ralph McDonald “Love and Laughter”
7.30 pm
At Christ Church GL6 0DQ
£10
Concert by baritone Ralph McDonald. They say that love and laughter help to make the world go round, so join Ralph McDonald and accompanist Alice Rosser at their recital. Ralph has performed in many top venues in the UK and internationally in Kuala Lumpur, Penang, Singapore, Bangkok, Kuching, Kota Kinabalu and Brunei. Sit back and enjoy music from several eras as the performers treat you to their own personal jamboree of joy and humour.
Refreshments available.
Tell Tales “Stirring Stories at Springtime”
8.00 pm
At Arkell Centre, GL6 0BG
£5
Another opportunity to hear exciting short fiction from Nailsworth’s renowned Tell Tales creative writing group. Come along and be moved by their imaginative skills.
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Three Storeys Workshop 2
‘Monoprint with Emily Lucas’
2.00pm until 4.300pm
At Three Storeys, GL6 0JF (entrance in Town Hall car park)
£35 inclusive of materials
A half day monoprint workshop for up to 6 people. A whistle stop tour of monoprint techniques experimenting with inks, plates and a printing press. Participants will have an opportunity to play with colour, texture, surface and line. Create colourful prints to take home. All abilities welcome.
Tickets available from Emily Lucas: emilylucas777@gmail.com
Film Club “Morris: A life with bells on”
7.00pm
At Nailsworth School, GL6 0BJ
£9
When “Morris: A life with bells on” opened in 2009, Ken Russell opined that ‘dancers armed with staves are poised to storm the box office.’ The film toured the village halls of the West Country and became a word-of-mouth hit. The film is a rockumentary of the life of Derecq Twist and his passion for Morris Dancing. A one-off, quirky bucolic comedy.
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Tickets from Town Information Centre only.
Jonny Fluffypunk
7.30 pm
At Three Storeys, GL6 0JF (entrance in Town Hall car park)
£10
Stand-up poet and lo-fi theatre maker Jonny Fluffypunk has been dragging his art around the UK and occasionally beyond for over 20 years, deftly fusing bittersweet autobiography, disillusionment and wonder into an act that has established him as a firm favourite at gigs, festivals and housing benefit offices everywhere. He has two volumes of poems and his solo ‘no-fi’ stand-up spoken word theatre shows have toured extensively around theatres, garden sheds, summer houses, empty shops and Britain’s other ad-hoc performance spaces in a blatant championing of homespun DIY culture.
“Acute social observation, intricate humour, surreal fantasy, sharp irony and wit...and England’s most pretentious moustache.” The Independent
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“Hands on Harps Beginner’s Workshop”
Sessions 3 and 4
12.30pm - 1.30pm and 2.00pm - 3.00pm
At Subscription Rooms, GL6 0JB
£10
Have you ever played a harp? Here is your chance to have a go. No musical experience needed; this is a simple session in a small group (limited to 8 per session). You’ll be surprised how easy it is to play a simple melody in no time!
(Tickets from the festival website only, alternatively please phone 01453 833658)
Sessions 1 and 2 are on Wednesday 26th May
Brodsky Quartet
Sponsored in memory of the late Robert Stiling, Brownshill, Stroud
7.30 pm
At Christ Church GL6 0DQ
£17
We are delighted to welcome the Brodsky String Quartet back to Nailsworth, as part of their 50th anniversary tour. Since forming in 1972, they have retained a preeminent position amongst British string quartets. As well as performing around the world and earning praise for their complete cycles of quartets by Shostakovich, Beethoven, Schubert and others, they have made musical history with ground-breaking collaborations with celebrated artists from the world of rock and pop. Their programme for us will include a new arrangement of the Bach Sonata for Solo Violin in G minor, Shostakovich String Quartet No. 2 and a late Beethoven String Quartet (Op. 132). Not to be missed!
Refreshments available.