Basingstoke Festival returns next week and is pulling out all the stops as it celebrates 15 years of art, culture, heritage, community and outdoor arts, with performances full of fun, energy and more opportunities to take part than ever before.

On every Saturday throughout the award-winning festival, which is delivered by Basingstoke and Deane Borough Council, Basingstoke town centre will burst into life with a full day of performances that audiences can see in one day. Visitors are being encouraged to pick up a programme or visit the Basingstoke Festival website to plan their day and make the most of the action.

On Sundays, the festival heads out on tour with selected acts popping up in communities across the borough, providing the perfect chance to explore somewhere new.

For those that missed the spectacle of the opening parade, the festival’s opening weekend is another opportunity to catch music from Mr Wilson’s Second Liners, as they move between London Street and Cross Street, and Tit for Tat Circus’ Disorder of Knights on Saturday at the Festival Place amphitheatre. This year’s Out and About programme also brings Disorder of Knights to The Green in Tadley on Sunday.

New for this year are two drop-in experiences, which will pop up in Festival Place over the first two weekends of the festival.

The Light Lab is an immersive exhibition celebrating the creativity of children and families from The Safe. This immersive space brings together their ideas, experiments and artworks, all brought to life through light, art and technology. Alongside the exhibition, the Play Space offers children, adults and families hands-on activities such as light drawing, light boxes, animation and digital pattern-making tools.

The Studio of New will also invite young creatives to step into the future of fashion through virtual reality, as part of limited drop-in sessions and workshops. Aspiring designers will be able to experiment with colour, texture and form in ways the real world can’t match. Visitors interested should secure their place on a pre-booked workshop by emailing festival@basingstoke.gov.uk. After the festival, every creation will be featured in a virtual fashion show, on an online catwalk.

Elsewhere in the town centre, a trio of leading performance poets – Paul Lyalls, Sally Pomme Clayton and Zohab Zee Khan performing as Apples and Snakes – offer a fun-filled, interactive poetry show in Cross Street. Audiences can also hear a new Ballad for Basingstoke, which was created with Cranbourne School and commissioned by Basingstoke Festival.

Company DHW will also be in Cross Street with their intergenerational hip hop show Go Grandad, Go! It will inspire the young, and not so young, to join in with their story of how we understand each other.

Outside the Wote Street Club, visitors can enjoy the dazzling and eccentric PeaPea La Plume, a robot, disco, drag queen peacock bringing together comedy and robo-caberet.

Local producer Sarah Thomas-Lane will also be in London Street with her speech-free show, Dare to Dream, which explores small beginnings and boundless possibilities from the perspective of children who live in a world that rarely looks their way.

Eastrop Park will be hosting The Hide, a unique live birdwatching experience led by artist Tilly Ingram. Kitted out with binoculars, headphones and a birdwatching sheet, audiences can also stop and think about how they look at nature and other people.

On Sunday, local favourites Pumpkin Pantos will be outside Bishops Green Village Hall performing Alice in Wonderland. Packed with colourful costumes, musical numbers and pantomime chaos, it will be a topsy-turvy trip through Wonderland.

Down Grange’s Walled Garden will be the scene for The Proteans to perform Chaucer’s The Canterbury Tales on Friday, Saturday and Sunday. This ticketed event will feature a bawdy cast of nuns, knights, cooks, clerks, merchants and even a cockerel or two.

Cabinet Member for Sports, Leisure and Culture Cllr Kerry Morrow said: “This year’s festival is bigger, bolder and more creative than ever as we celebrate an incredible 15 years of our special showcase of free arts and culture across the borough.

“With performances in Basingstoke, Tadley or Bishops Green, there really is something for everyone this opening weekend. Whether people want to watch, take part or simply soak up the atmosphere, we hope to see everyone enjoying the special line-up of performances.”

For more information about Basingstoke Festival, visit www.BasingstokeFestival.co.uk or follow the festival on social media channels @BasingstokeFestival on Facebook and @BstokeFestival on Instagram.

Basingstoke and Deane Borough Council has been supported to deliver Basingstoke Festival 2026 with funding by the National Lottery through Arts Council England. Basingstoke Festival is part of Without Walls, a network of organisations bringing innovative outdoor arts to towns and cities across England. There is more information at www.WithoutWalls.uk.com.