Big Hat Cabaret returns to Swindon after three years

Swindon's inclusive arts scene is about to get one of its best nights back. The Big Hat Cabaret returns on Friday 27 November at 7:00pm at the STEAM Museum, the first time the show has been staged since 2023, after a three-year gap caused by a lack of funding. It is put on by Reach Inclusive Arts, the local charity that has been working in Swindon since 1983, and the bill is built around disabled artists and their friends.

The evening is a proper mix rather than a single act. Expect music, dance, theatre, comedy, poetry and even a film premiere, with the Crowdys Hill School Choir, Momentum Dance, Salto Adults, Centre Stage, The Big Sing Thing and Inspire Enrichment all on the programme alongside solo performers. Rebecca Rocker, the Swindon Mayor's Poet for 2025/26 and founder of Torn Curtain, brings her poetry, and comedian Georgia Scott hosts the whole thing. The Partners Theatre production comes with a signed interpretation, comfortable lighting and sound levels, a chill-out space and full wheelchair access, and the catering and technical crew include disabled people too.

That three-year gap is the real story behind the comeback. Reach Inclusive Arts has been running in Swindon for over four decades, and its three community groups — Partners Theatre Company, a weekly drama group for adults; Right Time for Art, for visual arts; and Neon Lights, for young people aged 16 to 25 — have kept going while the cabaret was off. Bringing it back took a bit of help: a 15-month funding boost from Arts Council England, with financial support from The Julia Rausing Trust and Columbia Threadneedle. CEO Jeni Burchell described the Big Hat Cabaret as a lovely, uplifting evening that celebrates what people can achieve when they have the opportunity, encouragement and support to express themselves creatively, and said the charity was thrilled to bring it back after such a long gap.

For anyone who has not been before, it is worth knowing what you are walking into. The bill is wide, the room is accessible, and the whole thing is about giving people a platform they might not get elsewhere. If you have a soft spot for local talent and inclusive arts, it is a night that is easy to get behind. Tickets are £5 for adults and £3 for children aged 4 to 17, which includes one carer ticket, and they are on sale at reachinclusivearts.org.uk.

The venue is part of the draw as well. The STEAM Museum, the Museum of the Great Western Railway, sits in the former Swindon railway works and has been open since 2000, covering 6,500 square metres and telling the story of the Great Western Railway and Isambard Kingdom Brunel. It has hosted plenty of other events over the years, from an exhibition on the General Strike to 'The Last Blast', on the closure of the Swindon works, so it is well-used to putting on a show. Between the venue, the line-up and the fact that it has been away for three years, it is shaping up to be one of the more genuine nights on the local calendar this autumn.