Festivals - 'Save the Dates'

Life Arts is the leading mind body spirit events company in East Anglia. In April in Woodbridge and again in July at Trinity Park, Ipswich, they bring you the Mind, Body & Spirit Festival. Featuring a range of classes including yoga, Qi Gung, cleansing your aura and sound healing, plus tasters including Indian head massage, fire cupping, reiki healing and reflexology - a festival guaranteed to help you relax and de-stress! 

For more information visit https://www.lifearts.co.uk/life-arts-events/

INK Festival is an annual weekend festival of new short plays, musicals, radio and film taking place at The Cut in Halesworth.

The 15th April 2024 will feature the second INK Youth Festival, a day when local secondary school students can come to experience the joy of live theatre, for free.

Tickets for the 2024 INK Festival are on sale now. For more information visit inkfestival.org

Plenty of artisan East Anglian food and drink stalls, world street food, cookery theatre, music, children's entertainment will be taking over the charming market town of Beccles on Saturday 25 May 2024 for the Beccles Food & Drink Festival.

This free to attend event, not only showcases the region's top food & drink providers, this year the Local Flavours mobile cookery theatre, will feature budding chefs and bakers showing off their skills and providing you with culinary inspiration. 

For more information, visit becclesfoodfestival.co.uk or visit the Facebook page, facebook.com/becclesfoodanddrinkfestival

Taking place at Snape Maltings and venues in the town of Aldeburgh, the 2024 festival is back with a 16-day celebration of music and the arts. 

Celebrating 75 years of this incredible event, the 2024 festival promises to be a continuation of the classical music and culture pilgrimage that is the Aldeburgh Festival. Every June, the event plays host to new commissions, world premiers and international stars on the stretch of Suffolk Coast which composer Benjamin Britten loved so dearly.

For highlights of the 2023 festival and to sign up to the festivals mailing list for updates, visit brittenpearsarts.org/the-aldeburgh-festival

After a triumphant weekend in 2023, Lowestoft’s free summer solstice celebration will return for 2024. Inspired by Lowestoft’s location as the most Easterly part of the country and therefore the first to receive sunlight, the First Light Festival programme has been curated to celebrate the cycles of the sun with events taking place throughout the weekend from sunrise to sundown.

Championing Lowestoft as a growing creative hub by showcasing and supporting new talent within the local community, alongside a full programme of events and activations to engage and excite – First Light Festival is the UK’s only free beach festival. This year's headliners include DJ Colleen 'Cosmo' Murphy, comedian Shaprak Khorsandi and author and poet Hollie McNish.

The full First Light Festival 2024 line-up will be announced in Spring 2024, but you can book your wild beach camping or campervan pitch now!

For more information, visit firstlightlowestoft.com

Launched in 2013, Felixstowe Book Festival is a celebration of "Books by the Sea". Authors and audiences love the festivals unique and welcoming atmosphere where they can combine a weekend of literature with good quality seafood, walks along the prom and bracing swims in the North Sea.

Author events are followed by book signings, a chance to meet the talent behind the pen. With an eclectic range of genres to choose from, whether you are a fanatic of fiction, a lover of biography or an appreciator of poetry this festival is sure to have something for you to adore.

Tickets go on sale in April 2024, for more information and for highlights from 2023 visit the festivals website felixstowebookfestival.co.uk 

Established in 2008, Maverick Festival is now the UK's leading Americana event showcasing the best roots music from both sides of the Atlantic. Set amongst the restored Victorian barns and out-buildings of Easton Farm Park, nestled deep in the Suffolk countryside, the festival also hosts films, workshops and performances from a range of different artists across six stages, indoors and out.

Tickets are on sale now for 2024 and are available to buy online at maverickfestival.co.uk

July 6th sees the second Pax Festival, a one-day festival set in the woods in the heart of Suffolk at Thorington Theatre. 

Presented by Pax Records, the festival promises an intimate day of music, workshops and live arts. Headliner Henry Grace's vocals will be floating through the treetops whilst the amusing wordsmith Josh Flowers and captivating songstress Alex Kate join in to make this event a day you surely wont want to miss.

Sign up to wine tasting workshops by the Tik Tok sensation Luke Flunder and circus themed classes by Soho House resident life drawer Bella Franks.

For tickets and more information on the 2024 Pax Festival, head to thoringtontheatre.co.uk/events/pax-festival-2024 

Set within the stunning surroundings of Henham Park, Latitude has been creating unforgettable memories for over 15 years - offering the very best in music, dance, comedy, poetry, theatre, literature, podcasts, family activities and wellness.

This year's line up is yet to be announced although we do know one thing... the first confirmed headliner is Duran Duran!

Tickets for Latitude 2024 are on sale now at latitudefestival.com

The Black Shuck Festival is a unique festival celebrating folklore, imagination, and storytelling in its many forms, based on the strange and terrible wunder that is the Black Dog of Bungay! 

The East Anglian legend of Black Shuck tells of a wild black dog that entered Bungay's St Mary's Church during a violent storm, the animal then reappeared at Blythburgh Church, where the beast was trapped and its claw marks, burned into the surface of the door, can be seen to this day.

From theatre, music and performance, to art, literature, and history, the Black Shuck festival will offer exciting and thrilling activities for all ages and abilities, immersing visitors in the rich folklore of the region, set in the stunning natural environment of Bungay and the Waveney valley.

For more information go to blackshuckfestival.com

FolkEast continues in August 2024 and is bound to bring yet another brilliantly cosmopolitan line-up. In recent years the festival has hosted a range of vintage performers and some of the best new acts on the block including stellar overseas performers – from England, Scotland, Canada and Australia  and of course East Anglia. Look forward to this event as musicians and performers take to the stages in the stunning surroundings of Glemham Hall.

The 2024 event will be played out on several stages – Sunset main stage, Moot Hall, Stage in the Woods, Sanctuary Space and the Dance stage while the event’s pubs will be alive with singarounds and sessions. Here, there and everywhere throughout the weekend will be the festival’s hugely popular ‘life enhancers’, multi award-winning patrons, The Young ‘uns. 

For more information go to folkeast.co.uk

Aldeburgh Food & Drink Festival is a hugely popular food festival taking place in the beautiful setting of Snape Maltings, next to the River Alde and close to the Suffolk coast, where reed-covered marshlands stretch into the distance towards Aldeburgh.

With over 100 food and drink producers from Suffolk, many from just a few miles away, all gathered to sell their produce including raw milk, organic vegetables, sourdough bread, award-winning beer and spirits and delicious streetfood.

This year, the festival promises to deliver a jam-packed weekend of fabulous food adventures, from tastings and demonstrations to masterclasses.

For more information go to aldeburghfoodanddrink.co.uk

Set to return in 2024, Lowestoft Film Festival is a regional & UK based film festival that launched in 2021. The annual film festival is a celebration of undiscovered talent and independent films from across the UK.

The film festival is spread across multiple locations throughout the Town including the East Point Pavillion & The Grit Arts Centre. 2022 saw over 2,000 attendees across the in-person screenings from a programme of 86 short film screenings that was curated from an outstanding collection of local, regional and national films.

Dates and details for the 2024 programme are TBC. For more information on the festival head to lowestoftfilmfestival.co.uk