Date/Time
Saturday 24 May 2025
9:30 am - 10:30 am
Categories Dartmoor Tors Festival 2025
Tickets on sale here from 12 noon on Sat 22 Feb 2025:
£12 full price • £10 or £7 if you prefer – please pay what you can*
Dartmoor — Open to All?
A conversation with Kate Ashbrook, Matthew Kelly, Guy Shrubsole and Lewis Winks
Who really holds the power on Dartmoor? As a National Park, Dartmoor is supposed to be accessible to all, and until recently was the only place in the country you could wild camp freely. But a recent court case has thrown all that into doubt. Can we feel confident about being able to access Southern England’s biggest wilderness in future?
Kate Ashbrook is a campaigner for people’s rights to paths and access, who first fought Dartmoor battles 50 years ago; she is general secretary of the Open Spaces Society, vice-chair of the Campaign for National Parks and Dartmoor Preservation Association, and vice-president of Ramblers GB.
Matthew Kelly is a historian and author of Quartz and Feldspar, a social history of Dartmoor, and The Women who saved the English Countryside, which includes a portrait of Sylvia Sayer, who fought to protect Dartmoor in the twentieth century.
Guy Shrubsole is the best-selling author of Who Owns England and The Lost Rainforests of Britain. His latest book, The Lie of the Land, argues that landowners have failed in their duty to care for the countryside, and urges communities to fight back.
Lewis Winks is a social scientist, writer and campaigner. He co-founded The Stars Are For Everyone to defend the right to wild camp on Dartmoor, and works with Right to Roam to protect and extend public access to the countryside.
Dartmoor Tors Festival
23 – 25 May 2025
This event is part of the first Dartmoor Tors Festival. All ticketed events at Ashburton Arts Centre and the Field System gallery next door can be booked at wegottickets.com/dartmoortorsfestival.
Visit Dartmoor Tors Festival for the full programme, and links to book on guided walks, workshops and other events happening elsewhere.
This is a new festival about culture and place from 23 – 25 May 2025, based in Ashburton, South Dartmoor, with events in Ashburton Arts Centre and Field System gallery in Ashburton, and other locations around Dartmoor.
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See Access, Tickets & Finding Us for more about why there are three ticket prices, plus other useful info about coming to events at Ashburton Arts Centre: getting here, parking, loos, PA tickets, etc.
* We usually have three ticket prices – please pay what you can. If you can pay the full price, that’s great. If choosing a cheaper ticket allows you to come to more things, then please do! Ticket receipts are split between the artists (it’s usually their livelihood!) and the arts centre (keeps the place going). Except on the rare occasions when we have a sellout gig on our hands, it’s always better to have someone here in the audience than an empty seat, so genuinely, please pay whatever you can.