For a full schedule of gigs visit www.swanage-blues.org

Now an established fixture on the Swanage calendar, the Folk Festival takes place on the second weekend after the August Bank Holiday Monday and continues to provide entertainment and fun, for all and much of it free!

The festival is a diverse mixture of activities and experiences, with a feast of dancing on display throughout the town all weekend. A grand dance procession through the town will take place on the Saturday afternoon and the Sunday morning will see the popular folk service at St Mary’s Church.

There will be a very wide range of dancing and music workshops over the weekend and the children will not be forgotten with a programme of activities and events just for them! Learn circus skills, just watch the fun or become a prop in an impromptu play straight out of a bag!

There is loads for everyone and you can find out more here www.swanagefolkfestival.co.uk

Most people who have been to the Festival seem to agree that Swanage is the perfect place for a summer weekend of jazz. If you haven’t been before, we think you’ll find the mix of a weekend of top class jazz with a relaxed seaside setting irresistible. This is a very beautiful part of the country, with stunning coastal and hill scenery and charming villages.

The Jazz festival is run on a non-profit-making basis by a group of fans, who continue to promote the event after two decades because we love the music and enjoy the experience. We’ve grown from a small and rather shaky start to our present size, selling a thousand tickets for each of the three days. We get a small amount of sponsorship, from some local businesses and from the PRS Foundation for New Music. But over ninety per cent of our income comes from what the fans spend on tickets and the bars.

All of our venues are accessible by wheel chair. We are very definitely a child-friendly festival – we are pleased to admit children under sixteen free with a responsible adult, and we offer discounts of fifty per cent to school and college students.

The Swanage Jazz Festival, as always is a mix of well-known names in British jazz, with a selection of musicians from the brilliant younger generation, across most of the spectrum of music called jazz. From Dave Brennan’s Jubilee Jazz Band to Led Bib, by way of Keith Nichols Tribute to Louis, the amazing Brass Volcanoes, Michael Garrick playing MJQ and Tony Kofi’s Standard Time Trio, the Jazz Festival offers something to please everybody throughout the day. In the sphere of vocal jazz, established favourites Ian Shaw and Liane Carroll will put in appearances and Christine Tobin will make her first visit with brilliant new names Gill Manly and Yots K.

There are five stroller, three marquee and two indoor venues and all are accessible by wheelchair. Once again we are using Bar 7 by the Old Stone Quay, along with our regular venues on Sandpit Field, the Old Tennis Court site in Seymer Road and the Conservative Club.

There will be an all-day bus service from Sandpit Field (Marquees 1 and 2) to Marquee 3 on the Downs, via Bar 7 and the Conservative Club.

Purbeck Strings has its sights set on raising the profile of local string players and has taken another large step forward in achieving its goals thanks to a generous award from the Talbot Village Trust. The award has enabled Purbeck String to purchase a set of fine instruments that will be loaned to talented young musicians in the area. All the young string players who are offered the opportunity to borrow a fine instrument will have already proved their commitment by achieving at least a grade 5 standard   (making them a credit to themselves and their teachers). The instruments they borrow will be expressive enough to allow them to more easily reach higher levels and create the quality of sound needed for advanced performance.