With the warm weather currently forecast for the Bank Holiday weekend, this year’s festival could feel even more vibrant, with families, visitors and performers making the most of the many outdoor performances and events taking place across the town.
So, here’s a simple guide to the Chippenham Folk Festival and why people return year after year.
More than just music
The festival really is a huge town-wide celebration of music, dance, creativity, heritage and community. Across four days, Chippenham becomes one enormous live event with activities taking place in pubs, parks, churches, halls, cafes and streets throughout the town.You do not need to know anything about folk music to enjoy it.
Festival venues
One of the things that makes Chippenham Folk Festival so special is that it isn’t tucked away behind fences – it spreads right across the town.Festival venues range from churches and historic halls to pubs, cafes, outdoor stages and community spaces, all helping create the atmosphere that makes the weekend feel so unique.
You’ll find events taking place across venues including:
- The Angel Hotel
- The Neeld Community and Arts Centre and The Neeld Foyer/Café
- The Buttercross
- The Cause
- Island Park
- The Town Hall
- Yelde Hall
- St Andrew’s Church Outside – and The Hallsway Stage
- St Paul’s Church
- The Olympiad
- Borough Parade
- Middle High Street
- The Ruzé
- Cousin Norman’s
- Masonic Centre
And some of Chippenham’s pubs become music-filled festival hubs throughout the weekend, including:
Wine Monkey in Borough Parade also welcomes musicians and singers for informal sessions.
It means you can spend the whole day simply wandering through town and discovering something new around every corner.
So, what’s actually on?
The short answer – a lot!The 2026 festival includes:
- more than 600 performers
- 13 stages
- 76 dance and ceilidh events
- 69 folk artists and bands
- 69 dance display sides
- a wide variety of music events
- workshops and participatory sessions
- family entertainment
- storytelling
- street performances
- pub sessions
- craft and community activities
- camping and late-night events
There really is something for everyone – whatever your age or budget!
A huge FREE family and community programme
One of the festival’s highlights for locals is the FREE Family & Community Programme in Island Park, running throughout the weekend supported by Chippenham Borough Lands Charity and Chippenham Town Council.There’s a genuine community feel to the Family and Community programme of events with a wide range of events taking place from Friday through to Monday. Local schools, youth groups, choirs and young performers share the stage alongside established acts. Across the weekend you can enjoy performances from groups like Chippenham Male Voice Choir, Cause Community Choir, Chippenham & Calne Good Afternoon Choir, Chippenham & Swindon Show Choirs, Wiltshire Young Musicians, local singer-songwriters and young performers from across the region. There are also professional performers, workshops, storytelling and much more to enjoy!
Families can also take part in:
- children’s ceilidhs
- dance workshops
- circus skills
- creative “scrap attack” sessions
- inclusive music sessions for younger children
- face painting
- nursery rhyme and singing sessions
Island Park is a great family-friendly place to hang out over the festival weekend. The programme is designed so families can drop in and out throughout the day with no ticket required (although donations to the Folk Festival collectors are very welcome)!
- Community Stage – a stage with a range of performances from family acts including storytellers, comedy and song as well as national and local artists including dancers, community choirs, bands and singer-songwriters.
- Make and Do tent – a family marquee and home to a programme of craft workshops from scrap modelling, knitting and traditional Corndolly making as well as Ukelele workshops and Circus sessions.
- Under 5’s dome – a safe space for the youngest festival goers. With a programme of artists offering sensory play, song and movement workshops for both pre-walkers and toddlers, as well as soft play (when artist led sessions not running)
- Magic Lantern (Shadow Puppet Theatre) – Storytellers Gary and Ian are joined by Jo and her spectacular Magic Lantern. Watch a shadow puppet play, create your own puppets and perform your own shadow puppet play. Don’t forget to go back at sundown for a special shadow puppet performance at Dusk.
- Traders and Craft tent – with food, craft, artisan goods, clothing, and instrument stalls there is a treasure trove to browse both in the Craft tent found on Island Park and installs around the park and over the foot bridge towards Olympiad.
Don’t miss the youth programme
The festival also has a growing and separate Youth Programme for 11–17 yr olds, helping younger people experience folk music, dance and creativity in a fun and welcoming way. Activities include workshops, performances and opportunities to take part rather than simply watch.Sessions are run by organisations such as the NYFTE (National Youth Folk Troupe of England) and Shooting Roots.
For many young people, it’s their first experience of performing, creating and socialising within the folk community and it’s helping ensure these traditions continue for future generations.
Concerts over the weekend
The 2026 festival features a brilliant line up of music concerts taking place over the weekend. You can see the current list of concerts here.But one of the joys of Chippenham Folk Festival is discovering performers you’ve never heard before whether in a pub session, at a ceilidh or performing unexpectedly in the street. Check the website to see the full line up of music.
What’s a ceilidh?
A ceilidh (pronounced “kay-lee”) is a live folk-dance event where a caller talks everyone through the dances. Think of it as part barn dance and part community party. You don’t need any experience, a partner or special clothes, just a willingness to join in. Find out more about the many ceilidhs and folk-dance events on the main festival website here.One to particularly mention is the Harriet Willes’ Ball – a Regency inspired ball (think of Netflix hit show Brigerton!), featuring 18th century tunes discovered in a local archive. This will take place at the Neeld Hall from 3.45pm to 5.15pm on Sunday 24th May. Anyone aged 11 and above is welcome to attend the free event and you can dress up (if you wish).
Harriet Willes was the sister of the vicar of Christian Malford in the 1790’s and collected tunes and dances in her musical scrapbook, now held at the Wiltshire and Swindon History Centre (WSHC) in Chippenham. She probably knew Jane Austen. A project ‘Music. Heritage. Place.” unearthed her collection in 2024 and this ball will have tunes and dances not played for more than 200 years. This Chippenham Folk Festival event runs in partnership with WSHC and is also part of the wider Chippenham – Our History project, taking place this year.
You don’t need a ticket to enjoy huge parts of the festival
This surprises many local people. While many concerts and indoor events are ticketed – and we really recommend you check these out – a massive amount of the festival is available to enjoy without a ticket.You can:
- watch dance displays around the town centre and at various venues nearby
- enjoy outdoor performances
- soak up the atmosphere and be entertained in Island Park
- pop along to listen to one of the music sessions
- browse craft stalls
and of course, enjoy the extensive FREE Family & Community Events programme
Then there’s the legendary Stick and Bucket Dance Competition outside the Old Road Tavern – a wonderfully chaotic festival tradition inspired by Terry Pratchett involving dancing, sticks, buckets and plenty of laughter. It’s exactly the sort of quirky free community event that helps make Chippenham Folk Festival so memorable.
It’s also a huge boost for the town
The festival brings visitors into Chippenham from across the UK and beyond, helping support:- local pubs
- cafes
- shops
- restaurants
- community venues
And perhaps more importantly, it puts Chippenham’s community spirit firmly on display. Visitors often comment on how friendly and welcoming the town feels during festival weekend.
The volunteers are the real stars
Behind the scenes, an enormous and brilliant volunteer team is responsible for everything visitors see across the weekend.Many spend up to ten months of the year helping organise the festival – planning events, coordinating venues and arranging logistics. During the festival itself, many more volunteers give up large chunks of their Bank Holiday weekend simply because they love the event and what it brings to Chippenham.
From stewarding venues and managing performances to helping visitors find their way around town, volunteers are at the heart of the festival. Without them, there would be no festival.
A few tips for first-timers
- Watch the Folk Festival Parade – 2-3pm on Saturday 23rd May
- Try a ceilidh or folk-dance event
- Bring children to Island Park and encourage teenagers to join in with something in the Youth Programme
- Talk to people – folk audiences are famously friendly
- Buy at least one ticketed event &/or donate if you can – it really helps to support the future of the festival.
Why it matters
At a time when many towns are trying to rebuild community connection and local identity, events like Chippenham Folk Festival matter more than ever. For one weekend every year, Chippenham becomes a place where strangers dance together in the street. That’s really quite special.For the full programme, tickets and event details visit: https://www.chippfolk.co.uk
Download the free festival app – view the full festival programme, get your live location with directions to the events you’ve highlighted, search for events by genre, venue, artist or time & day. Download it for Apple or Google here: https://chippenhamfolkfestival.stagematic.app/GetTheApp
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