About Us

Dorchester Festival was started in 2005 following a major restoration of Dorchester Abbey.
It was initially a way of encouraging new people into the building and showing the potential of the Abbey as a venue for booking a variety of events.
Over the years it has become a major community event, offering opportunities to members of the community to perform and create and also to experience big professional arts events that would not normally be available on their doorstep in rural South Oxfordshire
It is entirely run by volunteers who take roles organising events, taking tickets or simply pouring tea!
We now also raise money across the Festival as a whole, and share our profits equally between Dorchester Abbey and a different local charity every time.

The video below explains how it all works