Save the date: The Bath Festival 2020

The Bath Festival is pleased to announce the dates for its ten-day celebration of music and books for 2020.

The festival will open with its traditional FREE Party in the City on Friday 15 May, run through the following ten days with a rich kaleidoscope of events, from classical concerts to debates on the big issues of our times, culminating in a two-day celebration on the Rec in the heart of Bath over the Bank Holiday weekend of Saturday 23 and Sunday 24 May.

Plans for the 2020 festival are already well underway as the arts charity’s programmers are scouting for the biggest and best names in literature and music to entertain and inspire audiences. The Bath Festival is a keystone of the city’s calendar, bringing live and internationally acclaimed musicians and writers to Bath for more than 70 years. Next year’s festival will also focus on sustainability and diversity and festival-goers should expect some exciting new venues and a few surprises in the programme line-up.

As always the festival will host events in the city’s most iconic and historic buildings, basing its main festival hub and green room at the Assembly Rooms, where audiences sit under priceless chandeliers in rooms where Georgian balls and gatherings were once held. The elegant St Swithin’s Church in Walcot, where Jane Austen’s parents were married, is the ideal setting for intimate classical concerts and, for rousing performances for many hundreds of people, there’s the Art Deco former cinema, The Forum.

The festival spills out onto the streets for Party in the City on the opening night and then returns to the Rec for two days of live music over the Bank Holiday weekend, with Bath Abbey as its dramatic backdrop. And following the success in 2019 of the Literature Lounge decorated marquee on Alfred Street, that venue will be popping up again in 2020.

Ian Stockley, Bath Festivals’ chief executive, said: “We wanted to share the dates for 2020 so we can involve more organisations and people with the festival. We’d love to hear from venues who would like to be part of The Bath Festival as we build on the success of the previous years. We’re really pleased to be able to take over the Rec for two days of music and family entertainment over the Bank Holiday weekend, which also neatly ties in with schools’ half term.”

Bath Festivals would like to hear from people who would like to support the festival, as volunteers, sponsors or to sign up as members, entitling them to early access to tickets. Join the mailing list and benefit from hearing about line-up announcements and ticket offers: https://bathfestivals.org.uk/sign-up/. Enquiries to the festival at: [email protected].

Highlights of The Bath Festival 2019:

• A unique street performance created by a professional composer and choreographer working with schoolchildren from Twerton and Whiteway and adults from Action on Hearing Loss, giving them a life enhancing experience as part of the festival’s Creating Learning Programme.
• Rising stars of the classical music scene, including violinist Benjamin Baker and pianist Isata Kanneh-Mason, treating audiences to the sort of programmes they’d normally hear at venues such as Carnegie Hall.
• Three authors with different perspectives on dementia sharing their experiences with their audience at a live event in which they shared humanity and humour.
• Dramatic footage of wildlife from the ground-breaking natural history series Our Planet with behind-the-scenes commentary from the series’ director.
• Hundreds of young people singing along to the chart-topping British singer Mabel on Bath Rec.
• Sell-out events in the new Literature Lounge marquee on Alfred Street, including a spine-tingling performance by contemporary poet Hollie McNish.
• Legendary Irish singer-songwriter Van Morrison delighting his fans with a fast-paced romp through his greatest hits back catalogue as he closed the festival weekend on the Rec.
• Mr B’s Emporium independent bookshop set up an ever-changing display of books at a beautifully laid out pop-up shop in the Assembly Rooms, resulting in a 20% increase in book sales on 2018.