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
Liane CarrollTuesday 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
People.Community.Forest: film and panel discussionThursday 1 May 2025 at 7:30 PM
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A short film exploring the evolving relationship between people and their local forests. Journey from Scotland to Nepal, across Germany and England. Witness communities engage with, manage, and benefit from surrounding forests.
A movement to restore the balance between humanity and nature. Followed by a panel discussion with international leaders and community forestry professionals.
GRICE & The Polarchoral Band
Friday 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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Award-winning ‘broken folk’ experimentalists: Lunatraktors strip Anglo-Celtic traditionals to the bare bones of vocal harmony and percussive dance. With eclectic acoustic beats, accordion, whistles and deep drones, they expand into weird, playful spaces. Primal and contemporary, mournful and joyously deranged, Lunatraktors are ‘simply different’ (RTÉ Lyric FM). ‘A clap of thunder over the lukewarm waters of contemporary folk’ (Télérama).
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.
Kevin Figes Quartet – You Are Here
Monday 5 May 2025 at 7:30 PM
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Steve Buckley is one of the finest alto sax players in Europe. Since emerging on the UK jazz scene with Loose Tubes in the 1980s, he has played globally with an astonishing array of topflight jazz names on both sides of the Atlantic and in Europe, won BBC Jazz Awards, worked at the National Theatre in a number of productions and gathered plaudits aplenty.
Roland Arnison: The Call of the Loon
Wednesday 7 May 2025 at 7:30 PM
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A multimedia talk by Roland Arnison, telling the story of his solo kayaking expedition to record the calls of all of Scotland’s seabird species and revealing the hidden world of our fascinating, precious and threatened seabirds.
“Highly recommended, we absolutely loved it and learnt SOOOO much.”
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.
Härva Trio
Thursday 8 May 2025 at 7:30 PM
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The members of Härva combine their talents and passion for Romanian and Serbian music with elements of their individual roots to create their unique sound with violin, guitar, accordion, tabor pipe and vocals. Their set takes you on a journey through joyful Romanian dances; emotive Roma songs with a one handed English Tabor Pipe; Swedish vocal harmonies; Breton inspired Geamparalele; Serbian Kolo, and the Romanian Jazz of accordionists such as Ionica Minune.
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
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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
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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
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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…
