The Frome Festival has emerged as one of the most highly respected and entertaining in the country. With over 180 events, featuring comedy, visual arts, theatre, dance, workshops, walks, talks, and every musical genre from classical to hip hop, this year’s colourful programme promises to attract thousands of visitors to the town between 8th and 17th July.

Musical highlights requiring early booking include Irish folk singer Cara Dillon, who won the Radio 2 folk album of the year, and singer-songwriter Sandi Thom, who first broke the international music scene with ‘I Wish I Was a Punk Rocker’. Mercury Music prize nominees Turin Brakes, world fusion pioneers Transglobal Underground, and festival favourites Praying for the Rain, all make for top-notch headline acts.
 The Classical music programme boasts the European Union Chamber Orchestra, which draws the world’s greatest soloists. Another first for the festival is the 90-piece National Schools Orchestra, who will accompany Tim Hugh, one of Britain’s finest cellists, who is this year’s Artist in Residence.

As always, the festival features comedy, and this year John Shuttleworth, Lucy Porter, Jo Caulfield and Three Bonzos and a Piano, amongst others, will be supplying the laughs.

One of Frome’s best kept secrets is that Pre-Raphaelite writer Christina Rossetti once lived and worked in the town. Amongst other Pre-Raphaelite tributes this year, the festival celebrates with a combined musical and literary event: Christina Rossetti – Her Life in Frome’. The Amati String Quartet will share the stage with Tina Waller, narrating Rossetti’s letters and poems, including ‘Goblin Market’ and ‘In the Bleak Midwinter’, which were influenced by her time in Frome.
 The festival’s many literary events spill over from the Writers & Publishers day, which is jammed full of workshops, one-to-one advice surgeries, talks, competitions, and even a writers question time. Hosted by literary agents, creative writing tutors, publishers, screen writers and published authors, this is a one-stop shop for all aspiring adult and young writers.

  
Events for young audiences and families include Miracle Theatre’s outdoor family comedy: ‘The Death of Sherlock Holmes’. Presented on the last night of the festival in the ECOS Amphitheatre, it promises to be a mystery that will keep you guessing until the end. For those wanting to take part in the dressing up, Poet Muriel Lavender invites the whole family to help the festival enter the Guinness Book of Records, for the largest gathering of fancy dress storybook characters. And for those preferring to dress down, the Outdoor Swimming Society’s Big Jump is a perfect opportunity for water lovers to take a summer dip in the River Frome.

This year’s visual arts programme is a kaleidoscope of exhibitions, collaborations, workshops, talks and happenings. Frome famously has more than its fair share of resident artists, and every year more open their doors and welcome in the public, as part of the Open Studios extravaganza.The Silk Mill Gallery will present paintings by American Abstract Expressionist Hassel Smith, whose work has not been shown since his death in 2007. In celebration of the artist, percussionist Jeremy Little and guitarist Adam Khan will be performing a one-off evening of minimalist classics, surrounded by this exhibition.