Bath is home to a packed calendar of events and festivals, and with lockdown restrictions starting to ease, plans are being made for their safe return. Here’s our guide to the major events that are set to return to the city over the next year, with COVID-safe precautions in place…
1. Brought to you by the creators of Pub in the Park, from 6th to 9th May, The Alfresco Theatre will bring a series of live shows and feel-good movies, all served up with dishes from some of the UK’s finest chefs.
2. The Bath Festival will be celebrating the best of music and books in a beautiful city with its 2021 programme, offering both live events from 17th to 24th May, and online events with The Bath Festival at Home.
3. From 28th May to 13th June, Bath Fringe Festival will celebrate the return and reopening of live culture, featuring theatre, live music, comedy, and visual arts.
4. Pub in the Park returns to Royal Victoria Park from 18th to 20th June. You’ll be able to tuck into tasty dishes from some of the UK’s finest chefs and party to live performances from Tom Walker, Beverley Knight, Sophie Ellis-Bextor and a Rudimental DJ set.
5. Bath Comedy Festival will be presenting a Permission to Laugh two-week festival in July. In the meantime, their Bath Comedy Club nights are returning to Widcombe Social Club on 28th May and 11th June.
6. Bath’s largest community arts project and free outdoor event, Bath Carnival, will be returning on 10th July, with the theme of Mother Earth.
7. Taking place in the heart of Bath each year, the much-loved and longstanding Bath Boules tournament weekend, which returns to the city from 23rd to 25th July, is all about having fun whilst fundraising.
8. Get your dancing shoes on and get ready to party on 7th and 8th August, as The Bath Festival’s long-awaited Finale Weekend will go ahead at Bath Recreation Ground, featuring McFly, Scouting for Girls, Billy Ocean, UB40 and more.
9. Returning to the city on 22nd August, Bike Bath is a day of short, medium, and long marked rides, taking in the best scenery of Somerset, Wiltshire and Gloucestershire, and raising money for local charities.
10. The Jane Austen Festival is due to return from 10th to 19th September for its 20th anniversary celebrations, with the spectacular Grand Regency Costumed Promenade taking place on 11th September.
11. From 11th to 26th September, Bathscape Walking Festival will celebrate Bath’s unique landscape, with guided walks to suit all walkers, led by knowledgeable local experts.
12. Bath Children’s Literature Festival, Europe’s largest dedicated children’s literature festival with a vibrant array of talks and activities for children, will return to Bath from 24th September to 3rd October.
13. Appealing to residents and culinary connoisseurs from far and wide, The Great Bath Feast is returning to the city to celebrate the best locally sourced food and drink from 24th to 26th September, with fringe events running throughout October.
14. From 19th to 23rd October, Bath Digital Festival is back with a week-long celebration of digital and technology. Expect a hybrid of activity with virtual and face-to-face events for the entire family.
15. If you like great films, FilmBath Festival is the event for you. Returning to the city from 28th October to 7th November, expect previews, special events, Q&As, F-Rated, LGBTQ+, BLM and family films, documentary features, shorts, and the IMDb Awards.
16. Over the past 30 years, Bath Mozartfest has built an enviable reputation for artistic excellence in chamber and orchestral music. From 13th to 20th November, Bath Mozartfest will present the finest classical music performed by world-renowned artists.
17. Returning to the city from 17th to 19th February 2022, Bath Bachfest is firmly established as a three-day, five-concert, mini music festival celebrating the work of Johann Sebastian Bach and his contemporaries.
18. On 13th March 2022, thousands of people will come to Bath for the Bath Half, hoping to chase down that elusive PB, tick something off the bucket list, or raise money for a charity close to their hearts.