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Warwick Folk Festival

A highlight on the British music calendar, attracting people from across the UK and beyond. Live music and dance are programmed at the Warwick School site and around Warwick town centre, with a free concert and dancing in Market Place. It also features workshops, storytelling, and theatre as well as a real ale & cider festival, wine bar and craft market. The festival runs over 4 days in July and has a daily capacity of 5,000.
Visit the Folk Festival's website

Leamington Music Festival

The Leamington Music Festival, held over the first weekend in May, was launched in 1990 and has taken place in the Royal Pump Rooms since 2000; an ideal venue for chamber music. Leamington Music’s flagship takes a strong theme, often making a Czech connection following the Free Army’s time in the area 1940-42 and Radio 3 has several times taken recordings to make a week’s lunchtime concerts.
Visit Leamington Music Festival's website

Kenilworth Arts Festival

Featuring ten days of events, workshops and exhibitions, held in different venues around the historic town of Kenilworth. The festival brings together award winning, internationally-acclaimed writers, musicians and visual artists from around the country, transforming everyday spaces into intimate arts venues and offering one-off live experiences to audiences.
Visit KAF's website

Warwick Words History Festival

A week-long festival of history, hosting around 50 events which takes place across the historic town of Warwick every October. Celebrating historical writing, fact and fiction and meet the authors, where audiences can discover and discuss their work. Talks, walks, workshops and seminars for both children and adults feature strongly in the festival’s programme which attracts over 5,000 to the town. The Festival was delighted to be chosen as one of Warwick District Council’s four Creative Partners and we were pleased to have been working with the Council to deliver and develop our creative goals.
Visit Warwick Words Website

Lantern Parade

The Lantern Parade was established in 2010 and is inspired by the illuminations which used to feature in Jephson Gardens in the 1950s. Each year the community are invited to come together and light up Royal Leamington Spa with thousands of unique and beautiful hand- made lanterns of all shapes and sizes. The parade also includes free lantern making workshops. The event is organised by BID Leamington, with funding from town centre businesses and benefits from the help of local artists and many volunteers. This popular event attracts over 1,000 families and brings around 3,000 people to the town each year.
Visit the Lantern Parade's website

Art In The Park

A free, curated arts festival that showcases, promotes and provides live demonstrations from over 280 visual and performance artists and craftspeople in Warwickshire and the Midlands. The programme includes live music, dance and theatre from the creatives based in district alongside nationally and internationally renowned companies. The festival takes place over the first weekend in August in the beautiful surroundings of Jephson Gardens. The festival has grown exponentially in recent years, becoming a flagship event for the region’s creative community. It now attracts approximately 40,000 people over the course of the weekend, generating an estimated £2.2 million million of additional economic activity.
Visit Art in the Park's website

Pursuits Festival

Warwick Pursuits festival is a new (2024), two-day, community event at St Nicholas Park, Warwick. It focuses on history and literature, music and dance, theatre and art, and sports and wellbeing, which offers various activities for families to enjoy for free. The weekend is filled with live music, food, drinks, workshops, demonstrations, and local information.
Visit Pursuits Festival's website

WOS Summer Art Weeks

This event is a celebration of the variety and quality of visual art available locally and is open to all – from passionate amateurs to professional artists, across all mediums. Over 300 artists at 100+ venues exhibit their work across 16 days. It is a free event for visitors, which attracts around 30,000 visits every year and more than £300,000 in art sales. The audience look forward to this annual event as it provides a fantastic opportunity to meet the artist, often in their own workshop, to discuss their inspirations, techniques and background.
Visit WOS's website

South Warwickshire Literary Festival

#SWLitFest - the little festival with the big heart - aims to encourage local writers of all genres and nurture and support reading and writing through a community event that is accessible to all. The first event, in 2022, was made possible through independent funding and the generosity of authors, speakers and volunteers. Local businesses and organisations are gradually becoming involved through sponsorship, advertising, and sharing of skills and experience.  In 2024, their writing competition, judged by international award-winning writers, raised almost £1,000. Competition winners are invited to share their work at the festival. #SWLitFest also host the Warwickshire Young Poet Laureate, while relatively unknown local writers share a stage with best-selling authors with local ties. Now in its third year the 2024 festival will present over a dozen speakers and other guests who will offer a range of talks, interviews, and workshops.
Visit SWLF's website

Leamington Mural Festival  

The Leamington Mural Festival is an annual, visual arts festival in Royal Leamington Spa. The festival aims to enhance ‘place’ and celebrate creativity through public art, including murals, street art, and graffiti installations. The festival also includes a Street Art Trail that features over 20 public artworks, including a 7-meter art nouveau-style mural. The festival is part of a program that aims to promote creativity, wellbeing, and regeneration in the town. The festival is managed by Mercia Murals and Brink Contemporary Arts.
Visit the Mural Festival's website

Leamington Food and Drink Festival

Created and delivered by BID Leamington, the festival attracts around 25,000 people to the town, involves over 40 town centre businesses and a further 75 traders from the wider region, and benefits from the support of local volunteers. Now in its seventeenth year, the festival includes cookery demonstrations, kid’s cookery school, and live music and brings the very best food and drink from across our region.
Visit Leamington Food and Drink Festival's website

Kenilworth Food Festival

The Kenilworth Food Festival is a free festival that celebrates the town's food and drink scene. The festival in 2024, featured local and national food and drink, live music, and children's activities.
Visit Kenilworth Food Festival's website

Warwickshire Pride Festival

The Warwickshire Pride festival, which takes place once a year in the Pump Room Gardens is a colourful celebration of LGBT+ life and culture. It also highlights the injustices that LGBT+ people still face locally, nationally and around the world. Pride started as a protest and Warwickshire Pride is an event rooted in that protest. Of course, it does have lots of fabulous things happening too. You can expect a Pride March, a rainbow marketplace of stalls, live performances and entertainment on stage throughout the day, food and drink from around the world, fairground rides, a trans chillout zone, bi zone, youth tent, women’s tent, a quiet zone, dog show, family area and much more.
Visit Pride's website

Ecofest

EcoFest aims to encourage people to make positive changes, that are good for them and good for the planet. It takes place once a year in the Pump Room Gardens, Leamington, It celebrate everything eco. Visitors are invited to learn how to decrease their carbon footprint, increase healthy eating, and step outside more to explore beautiful local green spaces. The festival includes live entertainment, food stalls, and much more.
Visit EcoFest's website

Markets

The district hosts a range of weekly and monthly markets, including a Charter Market and Farmers’ Market in Warwick, a traditional market in Kenilworth, and a Producers’ Market and Eco Market in Royal Leamington Spa. Royal Leamington Spa also hosts festive markets every October to December.
Visit the market's website

Carnivals

Kenilworth Carnival has taken place once a year in the town for over 125 years, and Warwick Mop takes place every October, and has been running since they laid the first stone for the castle 1,100 years ago. The Runaway MOP takes place the following week.