The first place that events usually get listed is at wegottickets.com/ashburtonarts. Sometimes they get listed there before they appear below. You can also book tickets there (+10% booking fee) or email boxoffice@ashburtonarts.org.uk to reserve and pay on the door (cash or card). 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. To be kept up to date with everything going on at Ashburton Arts Centre, join our mailing list.
Apr 2025
Phil Cooper Exploring SongwritingThursday 24 April 2025 at 7:30 PM
More info and tickets
Have you ever wondered how a song is born? There’s a magic to it that remains mysterious even to the most experienced songwriter. In “Exploring Songwriting”, singer-songwriter Phil Cooper presents an evening of live music and spoken word, exploring the art of songwriting. Through stories and examples he explains how a song can come into existence within a matter of minutes, and how some songs can take years to perfect. He demonstrates some of his own approaches and methods, in an accessible, interesting and entertaining manner. If you’re fascinated by music there’s loads here for you, regardless of whether you write music yourself.
Phil Cooper Songwriting Workshop
Friday 25 April 2025 at 10:00 AM
More info and tickets
Have you ever wondered how a song is born? There’s a magic to it that remains mysterious even to the most experienced songwriter. In “Exploring Songwriting”, singer-songwriter Phil Cooper presents an evening of live music and spoken word, exploring the art of songwriting. Through stories and examples he explains how a song can come into existence within a matter of minutes, and how some songs can take years to perfect. He demonstrates some of his own approaches and methods, in an accessible, interesting and entertaining manner. If you’re fascinated by music there’s loads here for you, regardless of whether you write music yourself.
Liza Pulman and Gareth Williams: Let’s Begin With Harold Arlen…
Friday 25 April 2025 at 7:30 PM
More info and tickets
The acclaimed singer (and one third of the iconic Fascinating Aida) Liza Pulman explores the Great American Song Book, starting with the genius of Harold Arlen and moving on to Rodgers & Hart, Irving Berlin, Fats Waller, Cole Porter, De Silva, Henderson & Brown and as many of their wonderful songs as she can possibly cram into one, bijoux evening.
Justin Adams and Mauro Durante
Saturday 26 April 2025 at 5:00 PM
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Two master musicians find new common ground between Magreb, Saharan desert and delta blue, Mediterranean melody, the tarantula of Puglia in South Italy and rocking soul. By turns powerful and intricate, all is linked to their fascination with trance rhythms.
Tune Storm - Tinners Moon Special
Saturday 26 April 2025 - Sunday 27 April 2025 at 8:00 PM
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A NIGHT OF DJS & DANCING TO KICK OFF TINNERS MOON FESTIVAL
Rebeca Ortega Flamenco: Silencio (show plus dance & guitar workshops)
Sunday 27 April 2025 at 5:00 PM
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From the tradition and avant-garde of flamenco culture, this dance performance is theatrically woven together, accompanied by traditional flamenco musicians, and expressed through the depth of the seguiriya, the femininity of the guajira, the intensity of the farruca, and the rhythms of the jaleos and bulerías.
Plus Flamenco dance and guitar workshops.
The Mighty Goddess - performed by Sally Pomme Clayton
Sunday 27 April 2025 at 8:00 PM
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Electrifying, soulful storytelling – for adults only! Sly, subversive, spectacular storytelling by pioneer Sally Pomme Clayton evoking goddesses from across the globe. She mixes myths with memories, spells with songs, comedy with ceremony. These stories have not been tamed and are x-rated for adults only!
NOBATB: Pennsylvania Railroad, Stompin Dave solo
Monday 28 April 2025 at 7:30 PM
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On the last Monday of every month, we celebrate the music that draws inspiration from the great tradition that is the blues. Most of the musicians and bands billed are based in Devon and the South West. At the end of each night there’s an open jam session where the musicians on the bill play with each other, and anyone else who’d like to play a tune or two. These nights are curated by local bass player, Mary Caffrey.
Liane Carroll
Tuesday 29 April 2025 at 7:30 PM
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One of the UK’s most accomplished jazz singers and outstanding pianist Liane Carroll performs jazz classics and original compositions. Well-known for her powerful, highly emotional voice and superlative improvising skills, Liane has enjoyed a long career across multiple genres.
May 2025
GRICE & The Polarchoral BandFriday 2 May 2025 at 7:30 PM
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Art rock artist GRICE has built his reputation since 2012 with his debut album ‘Propeller’ (MPG Awards). His music has has been championed by Tom Robinson on BBC Radio 6 Music and his albums have had great reviews: “Gorgeously epic” BBC 6 Music | Tom Robinson
“An album of exquisite beauty from an artist of rare refinement” PROG magazine
Mayday Morris Workshop
Saturday 3 May 2025 - Friday 9 May 2025 at 11:00 AM
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In this workshop centred on dance as protest, members of MAYDAY Morris will share their history and ethos, and host a discussion on the importance of activism. You will discover how they bring positive energy to protest while bearing witness to loss, injustice, and inequality, using a medium that is the epitome of their common folk tradition.
Molly No Mates Morris Workshop
Saturday 3 May 2025 - Friday 9 May 2025 at 12:30 PM
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Molly No-Mates is hosting this hour-long Molly dancing workshop for anyone who would like to give Morris a go. They will be teaching their own dance to ‘Hal-an-Tow’, a traditional May Day song (whose lyrics we have reworked). Singing along is also encouraged and printed lyrics will be provided!
Lore and Land III Artists' Round Table / Story: Old Crockern / Film: Dartmoor Calling
Saturday 3 May 2025 - Friday 9 May 2025 at 2:00 PM
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Dartmoor storyteller Lisa Schneidau discusses things otherworldly, bestial and ritual with artists Libby Bove, Gemma Dunnell, Abigail Tinnion, Asha Umberio and George Radford; followed by a story and this documentary by Dartmoor Preservation Association and Clapham Film Unit.
Lunatraktors
Saturday 3 May 2025 at 7:30 PM
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Lunatraktors are choreographer and percussionist Carli Jefferson, and nonbinary vocalist and composer Clair Le Couteur. Influenced by flamenco, post-punk and trip hop, their’ ‘broken folk’ sound strips trad folk back to rhythm and voice. The pair turned heads in 2019 when their DIY debut This Is Broken Folk – recorded live in a viaduct arch by Ramsgate harbour – made it onto MOJO Magazine’s Top Ten Folk Albums.
Orlando Dibelo & Ruth Rozelaar
Sunday 4 May 2025 at 1:00 PM
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The Bandoneon is the instrument at the heart of the inimical sound of Tango music.
On their UK tour of playing for dance events, the great Argentine Bandoneon Maestro Orlando Dibelo and his student Ruth Rozelaar will visit Ashburton Arts Centre one more time to play.
Roland Arnison: The Call of the Loon
Wednesday 7 May 2025 at 7:30 PM
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A quest to record all the calls of Scotland’s seabird species, travelling solo by sea kayak.
Seminar Series: Prof Joe Foweraker & Pip Harris on A Life Well Lived
Thursday 8 May 2025 at 6:00 PM
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Prof Joe Foweraker looks at ‘the challenges of a life well-lived’. His sessions are similar to university seminars, though there are no qualifications needed to come, or essays to write! – you just need to be interested and curious. They’re very friendly and informal.
Living Room Theatre: The End is In The Beginning, a Samuel Beckett omnibus
Friday 9 May 2025 at 7:30 PM
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Expect a bicycle, a giant mouth, old boots, audience up on stage, a bevvy of bananas, a mystery phone call, frantic clowning, beguiling stillness, all encased in hilarious, poignant, confusing and compelling drama, ie the usual stuff you might get with yours truly!
Angelheart Theatre: Sam O’Shanty
Saturday 10 May 2025 at 2:30 PM
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Sam O’Shanty has sailed the Seven Seas: from Devonport to Durban Bay. From Nantucket to New Guinea. From Cape Wrath to the Cape of Good Hope. But now Sam has come ashore, and with his two shipmates he’s got all manner of marvellous stories to tell.
Shiver yer timbers to the curious tale of a batty witch and her enchanted wee cap!
Or hear the tangled yarn of the Lucky Mermaid and the man who went to sea in a bucket!
Sam O’Shanty is a nautically comic show for all the family, crammed with fact, farce and fantasy. A performance in which storytelling, puppetry and the singing of shanties will entertain, enthral and delight…Huzzar!
Jazz Jam Session (first Monday of each month): Martin Jenkins & Tony Follano
Monday 12 May 2025 at 7:30 PM
More info and tickets
The first Monday of each month starting at 7.30pm. This month’s house band will be:
Jesse Molins on guitar and your host for the evening with: Kieron Garrett, piano and Ric Byer, drums
Club Tropicana - 80s Club Night
Saturday 17 May 2025 at 7:30 PM
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A fundraising club night with DJs Al and Vicki spinning your favourite 80s tracks in support of South Dartmoor Community College Ten Tors Team.
Devon & Somerset Fire & Rescue Service Concert Band
Sunday 18 May 2025 at 3:00 PM
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The Devon & Somerset Fire & Rescue Service Concert Band is in its 31st year with over 40 members, including former professional musicians and skilled amateurs from the broader local community. The programme will include a wide variety of music styles including classical, pop music and film music, plus some contemporary concert band pieces. The programme includes Prismatic Light by Alan Fernie, Morning, Noon & Night in Vienna, Trumpet Voluntary and Swing When You’re Winning – a medley of big band numbers from Robbie Williams’s 2001 album.
Ahmed Dickinson and Eduardo Martín: virtuoso guitar duo from Cuba
Thursday 22 May 2025 at 7:30 PM
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The show compiles some of Grammy nominee composer Eduardo’s most alluring works for two guitars. Prepare to listen to classical styles merged with rock and son montunos, old Yoruba chants or feel-good rumbas with funk- boleros, and new-age tunes and cinematic pieces sitting alongside Cuban tumbaos with slap bass.
Martha Tilson
Friday 23 May 2025 at 7:30 PM
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“She has probably the purest voice I have heard and at times it sent shivers up and down my spine” BBC
DARTMOOR – OPEN TO ALL? A conversation with Kate Ashbrook, Matthew Kelly, Guy Shrubsole and Lewis Winks
Saturday 24 May 2025 at 9:30 AM
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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? Part of Dartmoor Tors Festival
ROCK IDOLS – DARTMOOR’S EXTRAORDINARY TORS: Wyl Menmuir in conversation with Alex Murdin and Sophie Pierce
Saturday 24 May 2025 at 11:00 AM
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Fantastical yet natural, Dartmoor’s 280-million-year-old tors are among the most iconic landmarks in southern Britain. Victorian antiquarians described them as ‘rock idols’, believing them to be stone deities worshipped by the Druids. Thousands of years before that, they inspired our ancestors who built ceremonial stone rows and circles aligned on them…
Part of Dartmoor Tors Festival
THE SECRETS OF CUT HILL AND PILES HILL: Uncovering the lives of the ancestors – A talk by DNP archaeologists Lee Bray and Andy Crabb
Saturday 24 May 2025 at 12:30 PM
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In August 2024 a Bronze Age burial cist — described as exceptional — was excavated at Cut Hill, one of the moor’s highest and most remote sites. And the year before that, a possible surface made of quartz was found underneath a double stone row at Piles Hill. Archaeologists Dr Lee Bray and Dr Andy Crabb, from the Dartmoor National Park Authority (DNPA), will reveal the latest findings from these extraordinary discoveries, taking us on a journey of archaeological inquiry. In a story which involves everything from battling the moor’s inclement weather, to re-erecting fallen stones, they will unveil the secrets of these ancient stone monuments.
Part of Dartmoor Tors Festival
BEYOND HUMAN: LANDSCAPE’S EMOTIONAL RESONANCE: Readings by and conversation with Sean Borodale and Fiona Williams
Saturday 24 May 2025 at 2:00 PM
More info and tickets
What role does place play in human stories? And how can our emotional response to wild landscapes deepen our lives and those of the other beings which share our planet? From caves and rivers, to moors and marshes, join writers whose work is deeply rooted in British locations for readings and a conversation about our relationship with the landscapes that surround us.
Part of Dartmoor Tors Festival
DARTMOOR IS THE ARTIST: A visual presentation and conversation with Land & Lore, Garry Fabian Miller, Matthew Shaw and Mark Jessett
Saturday 24 May 2025 at 3:30 PM
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Through visual presentation and conversation, find out how Dartmoor, and other places, have been leading the way for some of the most interesting human artists making art today: Lore & Land, Garry Fabian Miller, Matthew Shaw and Mark Jessett.
Part of Dartmoor Tors Festival
SOLD OUT: Seth Lakeman (with Benji Kirkpatrick and Alex Hart)
Saturday 24 May 2025 at 7:30 PM
More info and tickets
Dartmoor Folk legend with two of his regular collaborators. Tickets will go on sale from 12 noon on Saturday 22 February.
BELTANE BORDER: THE DARK SIDE OF FOLK: A conversation with, and performance by, Dartmoor’s wildest Morris side
Sunday 25 May 2025 at 6:00 PM
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Join us for rare conversation with Beltane Border, followed by a thrilling performance outside Ashburton Arts Centre.
What is behind the tradition — and subversion — of this legendary Dartmoor Morris side?
Where do the dances come from, and how do they relate to the landscape of Dartmoor?
And why the fierce faces and fishnets?
Part of Dartmoor Tors Festival
Event Calendar
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What we’ve been up to so far…
