If you fancy a weekend of folk, roots and world music in the countryside, the Purbeck Valley Folk Festival is back from Thursday 20 to Sunday 23 August. It runs at Purbeck Valley Farm on Valley Road, Corfe Castle, a family-run campsite and working beef farm tucked between Corfe Castle and Swanage, under the Purbeck Ridgeway on the Jurassic Coast. The music is spread across five stages, starting on the Thursday night and running over three and a bit days, with national and international names alongside Purbeck Rising, which gives emerging local talent a slot. There are two ceilidhs over the weekend.
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The line-up is already taking shape. Thursday opens with Ukulele Death Squad, Around About Dusk, Nick Parker & The False Alarms, Dryadic and Bob & Connor Burke. Friday adds Baskery, Sam Kelly & The Lost Boys, Marsha Tilston, Flats & Sharps, Toby Shaer, Archie Moss & Jack Warnock, Frankie Archer, Charlotte Carrivick Band, Tarren, The Boot Heel Playboys and Dryadic. Saturday brings Eddi Reader, Suntou Susso & The Gambian Superstars, Marsha Tilston, Michael Prewitt, The Roving Crows, The Boot Heel Playboys, PerKelt and the Clementine Lovell Trio. Sunday rounds it off with Jiggy, Bonfire Radicals, Flats & Sharps, Eabhal, RE:VULVA, Klezmer Foygl, Evolution of Fishermen and the Clementine Lovell Trio. A long list of other acts is still to be slotted in, so it is worth checking the line-up page closer to the time.
It is not all music, though. There is a big creative programme with workshops in candle-craft, origami, tutu-making, raku pottery, cyanotype, blacksmithing, henna tattoos, hobby horse and willow-weaving, most of them on a cash or card donation basis, plus singing and instrument sessions. For children there is a space-hopper obstacle course, and the festival keeps its quirkier traditions going with a busk station, open mic sessions and the annual Beard-Off, with categories like 'Biggest, Bestest & Fullest' and slots for girls and children. The Purbeck Poetry Slam is back too, and there is a themed fancy dress competition on the Fire Stage on the Saturday afternoon, with this year's theme being the letter O.
On tickets, early bird adult weekend passes are £175, with youth (13-17) at £80 and child (4-12) at £30, and a £60 campervan or caravan pass. Babies and toddlers under three are free but still need a booked ticket, and all under-18s must be with an adult. There is a 'pay it forward' option to add £20 or £50 to help a family in need, and a discount for local residents in the BH19 and BH20 postcodes on full weekend tickets, with ID and proof of address checked at the gate. Daily capacity is 3,000.
If you are camping, there is a large site with a tents-only field and a campers and caravans field, hot showers, flushing toilets, a hot water washing-up area, hand sanitiser, soap and play equipment for children, plus a visiting pizza van. You can hire fire pits with logs, though campfires are not allowed, and electric hook-ups can be booked as an extra. General camping is not available during the festival. For food, there are home cooking, food vans, bars and stalls doing stone-baked pizza, venison and vegan burgers, donuts, crêpes, smoothies and ice cream, with local breweries supplying the draft beers, scrumpies and fruity ciders, and breakfast and fresh coffee stalls for campers.
Getting there is straightforward: the farm is on the left when leaving Corfe Castle, just before Harman's Cross, or on the right just after Harman's Cross if you are coming from Studland or the chain bridge.
Published Date
24 July 2026
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