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.
Mar 2025
Chasing Crockern: Dartmoor Folk Tales Reimagined (Fully booked - email for waiting list)Friday 14 March 2025 at 7:30 PM
More info and tickets
On a stormy night on Dartmoor, a midwife is woken by a strange-looking man whose wife needs urgent help. Driving at breakneck speed through lanes that become increasingly unfamiliar, she arrives at a mysterious old cottage where things are not quite what they seem. As mist rolls over ancient granite, tors move and rivers speak, the midwife realises that this midnight call for help has had some unexpected consequences…
The Crazy World of Arthur Brown (Fully booked - email for waiting list)
Saturday 15 March 2025 at 7:30 PM
More info and tickets
A UK rock legend since the late 1960s, Arthur Brown and his band will be doing one of their incendiary performances right here in Ashburton!
Iago Banet: The Galician king of acoustic guitar
Thursday 20 March 2025 at 7:30 PM
More info and tickets
Banet released his third studio album in March 2023 and, in it, he takes the acoustic guitar to its limits. The album features new levels of skill, complexity and versatility, fusing styles, including gypsy jazz, blues rock, country, dixieland, swing, pop and folk. Iago’s technique and approach to performance have captivated crowds across the UK and Spain. A one-man-band on acoustic guitar. “A master of the guitar” Sean Rafferty, BBC Radio 3
Quartet: workshops
Saturday 22 March 2025 - Sunday 23 March 2025 at 11:00 AM
More info and tickets
Quartet inspired workshops delivered through the collaborative dance artists Jane Mason, Klara Łucznik and musicians Carolyn Hume and Paul May.
This will happen in the Studio upstairs (20 stairs, no lift).
Quartet: movement / music / video / text
Saturday 22 March 2025 at 7:30 PM
More info and tickets
Book here now: £15 full price • £10 or £7 if you prefer – please pay what you can*
A collaboration between dance artists Angus Balbernie, Helen MacPhee, Yolande Snaith, Klara Łucznik and musicians Carolyn Hume and Paul May
4 pieces, each with live improvised music
4 performers working with real time composition to shape their work
4 elements: movement; sound; film and text
4 ways to move the imagination . . . .
Quartet is an evening of dance, music and performance, created in a series of open ended improvisation sessions and dialogue between dance artists Angus Balbernie, Helen MacPhee, Yolande Snaith and Klara Łucznik, and musicians Carolyn Hume and Paul May.
Quartet has evolved into a collaboration between structure and spontaneity, ideas and
intentions, musicians and performers, bringing diverse elements and artists together.
From Here – this moment is the beginning; from here we move on with what we are, what we have, what we notice and what we feel.
Rest without Resting – a shared space of improvised movement and music with film. Movement explores thoughts, emotions and imagination further stimulated in response to sound.
There is only one joke in Montana – imagine a vast empty landscape, and the possibility of bears. What’s funny about that?
Whispering into the Blue – creates an elemental synthesis of dance, film, music and text, journeying through metaphorical landscapes of absence, re-inhabiting and breathing light and love into empty spaces of darkness and loss, honoring remembrance, inviting renewal.
Accompanying workshops: Separate booking links to come
These will all happen in the Studio upstairs (no lift)
Saturday 22 March, 11am – 1pm with Jane Mason
More info to come
Saturday March 22, 3 – 5pm Ensemble CI Lab with Klara Łucznik
Immerse yourself in the richness and magic of group structures in contact improvisation, where connections are woven not only through touch but also through space and time.
Sunday March 23, 2 – 4pm : Post performance workshop with Yolande Snaith.
An invitation to experience the integral structures and themes explored and in Quartet, offering insights into dance-making ‘in the moment’ and collaborative practice.
Sunday March 23, 5-6pm: JAM
an hour-long open improvisation session with soundscapes by Gisson Hussman.
All workshop attendees are welcome to participate. A limited number of spectator tickets will be available.
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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.
Lyric Chamber Orchestra: Spring concert
Sunday 23 March 2025 at 3:00 PM
More info and tickets
This Devon-based ensemble is led by violinist Patricia Calnan, who played for years with the Academy of St Martin in the Fields under Sir Neville Marriner. This is part of the orchestra’s first season of concerts under the baton of its new conductor, Keith Marshall.
Elgar: Serenade for strings
Gerald Finzi: RomanceVaughan Williams:
Fantasia on a theme of Thomas Tallis
Walton: Sonata for strings
Quartet: Jam: hour-long open improvisation session.
Sunday 23 March 2025 at 5:00 PM
More info and tickets
Jam: an hour-long open improvisation session with soundscapes by Gisson HussmanAll workshop attendees are welcome to participate.See gissonhussman.bandcamp.com for examples of Gisson Hussman’s music.
Kêmbang
Sunday 23 March 2025 at 7:30 PM
More info and tickets
Kêmbang (Indonesian for fruit flower or to bloom) creates a unique sound by weaving together melodies reminiscent of English folk music and traditional Javanese music (called Karawitan, or Gamelan). William Barnardo, who lived and studied music in Central Java, is joined by multi instrumentalists Joss Mann-Hazell, and Pete Holmes, and vocalist Jessica Wiehler, with special guest Eb Ellis who lived and gigged in Central Java.
Totnes Independent School: The Cursed Vase preceded by The Odyssey (Performance on Tues & Weds eves)
Tuesday 25 March 2025 - Wednesday 26 March 2025 at 7:30 PM
More info and tickets
Join students from Totnes Independent School to see two performances:
The Cursed Vase — a devised prologue in the style of Night at the Museum, plus their feature production of:
The Odyssey — a contemporary retelling of Homer’s famous story, fusing with it the concept that the main character Odyseus, is a refugee trying to get home to Ithaca.
Derek Nash with the Martin Dale Quartet
Thursday 27 March 2025 at 7:30 PM
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A night of swinging bravado, showmanship and humour from two of the UK’s top saxophonists and a great band.
Phil Beer in Concert
Saturday 29 March 2025 at 7:30 PM
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Phil Beer is the multi-instrumental half of the west country’s award-winning acoustic duo, Show of Hands.
“A Phil Beer gig is one spent in the company of a true craftsman, a master musician and consummate performer” Spiral Earth
Eternal Triangle (Trevor Watts, Veryan Weston, Jamie Harris)
Sunday 30 March 2025 at 7:30 PM
More info and tickets
Eternal Triangle plays the music of Trevor Watts: compositions originally inspired by rhythmic structures from Africa and South America as well as jazz and European musical forms.
Not Only But Also The Blues: James Dixon | Adam Sweet
Monday 31 March 2025 at 7:30 PM
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Another great line up of two of the best blues-inspired acts in the South West, curated here on the last Monday of every month by local bass player Mary Caffrey.
Apr 2025
John Langhan / Dartsong ChorusWednesday 2 April 2025 at 7:30 PM
More info and tickets
John Langan: Expect superb musicianship and a wonderful collection of songs, everything from Scottish, Irish and Romany to South American folk, delivered with superb musicianship and by one of the most unforgettable folk voices in Britain today. To start we’ll have a set from the chorus’s repertoire of intricate modern and traditional choral arrangements, brought to life in vibrant multi-part harmony. Later on the chorus will join John on stage to bring things to a rousing climax!
Spring Singing Workshop with Georgie Buchanan and Alana Middleton
Sunday 6 April 2025 at 3:00 PM
More info and tickets
All are welcome to come and sing traditional and original songs inspired by this beautiful turning point of the year with Georgie and Alana before their concert in the evening.
Georgie Buchanan & Alana Middleton
Sunday 6 April 2025 at 7:30 PM
More info and tickets
Inspired by voyages to the Outer Hebrides, tales of ancient Celtic Goddesses and great folk singers from Peggy Seeger to Joni Mitchell, Georgie Buchanan is a unique singer and harpist on the contemporary folk scene. She’s joined here by Alana Middleton, folk fiddle-player and singer – they combine wonderfully creating delicious harmonies with voices and instruments.
“This is beautiful, subtle and sophisticated folk music. Ethereal yet rooted. I can’t wait to hear more from Georgie Buchanan.” Miranda Sykes (Show of Hands)
“Exquisite” Hannah Peel, BBC Radio 3
“Gorgeous” Guy Garvey, BBC 6Music
May 2025
DARTMOOR – OPEN TO ALL? A conversation with Kate Ashbrook, Matthew Kelly, Guy Shrubsole and Lewis WinksSaturday 24 May 2025 at 9:30 AM
More info and tickets
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
More info and tickets
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
More info and tickets
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
More info and tickets
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
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
More info and tickets
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…
