Salisbury International Arts Festival 2025

A Festival is an opportunity to let imaginations soar and this year we are definitely looking skyward with a programme full of creativity and originality.

Join us in Market Square for Gorilla Circus’ extraordinary. This free event will see us gazing upwards as hair hanging artists, UNITY aerial show dance trapeze and high wire walkers travel overhead.

Also in Guildhall Square and running throughout the Festival period, we are delighted to welcome Darkfield with their extraordinary immersive show FLIGHT. Seated inside a 40ft shipping container, FLIGHT their extraordinary immersive show the interior of which exactly resembles an Airbus 320, audiences embark on a thrilling adventure through two worlds, two realities and two possible outcomes to their journey.

Other outside work will include what promises to be a memorable trip to Stonehenge, a celebration of Thomas Hardy with Orchestra of the Swan A Beautiful Thread for

and the actor Anton Lesser under the evening sky. Elsewhere, music will fly with performed by the Eagles, Birdsongs and Bach Howard Moody’s new composition in world’s most flamboyant recorder virtuoso, Piers Adams, and musicians from La Folia at St Thomas’ Church.

St Thomas’ also features in another important strand of the Festival programme, the 50th anniversary of the founding of Salisbury Arts Centre and the migration of the St Edmund’s congregation to their new home at St Thomas’. The Festival will begin at the Arts Centre led by the Rev’d Canon Kelvin Inglis, Evensong with a very special followed by a procession back to St Thomas’. Later on in the Festival we will also be Family Fiesta celebrating the importance of the Arts Centre for young people with a showcase of young local bands.

Alongside these key events we are delighted to be able to offer a wide range of outstanding dance including the award-winning Aakash Odedra Company, opera from Swansea City Opera and theatre with a welcome return from The Lord Chamberlain’s Men this year, producing Twelfth Night in the idyllic Rack Close.

So much to look forward to and we look forward to seeing you at the Festival.

Salisbury International Arts Festival

Imagination will soar with our exciting and varied programme running from 24 May - 8 June. Highlights include A Beautiful Thread: Thomas Hardy in Words & Music, a truly unique event performed at the historic Stone Circle, UNITY, Gorilla Circus' extraordinary free aerial show taking place in Market Square, and FLIGHT, an immersive 30-minute experience in complete darkness inside of a shipping container modelled after an Airbus 320 in Guildhall Square. Also on offer are spectacular dance performances, including Songs of the Bulbul and Ballet Central 2025, incredible live music with Jacqui Dankworth and Hejira: Celebrating Joni Mitchell, and captivating theatre, including The Lord Chamberlain's Men'sTwelfth Night and The Mistake by Michael Mears. Plus, we have events for all ages, including Minny Stynker by Soap Soup Theatre and Darryl J. Carrington's Out of the Box for the little ones. There’s something for everyone at this year’s festival. Book your tickets now and join us for an unforgettable experience!