Petworth Festival

Noticeboard posts:
30.12.25 New artistic leadership confirmed for Petworth Festival
06.07.25 From the Classical Stage: Highlights & Updates for this year’s Petworth Festival
01.05.25 Tickets are now on sale for the 2025 Petworth Summer Festival
09.07.24 Petworth Festival launches on Wednesday 10 July
01.05.24 Tickets for the Petworth Festival 2024 are available soon
07.04.24 Petworth Festival June Edition
17.07.23 Petworth Festival offers twin voyages of discovery
01.07.23 Petworth Festival launches on Tuesday 11 July
10.05.23 The Summer Festival Box Office is now open!
01.07.22 Concerts coming up at the Petworth Festival
21.04.22 It’s Business as un-usual at the Petworth Festival
18.09.20 Profile: Stewart Collins

The 3rd Petworth Proms: 14-16 May 2026
The 47th Petworth Summer Festival: 16 July – 1 August 2026
The 16th Petworth Literary Festival: 28 Oct – 8 Nov 2026

A summer Arts Festival and autumn Literary Week staged at venues in and around the beautiful market town of Petworth.

Founded in 1979, the now three-week festival annually programmes artists and performers from the very top drawer right across the performing genres. Having started as a celebration of classical music, the festival continues to present some of the leading names seen on the biggest stages around the world, with MILOŠ, Steven Isserlis, Mitsuko Uchida and Sheku Kanneh-Mason all being recent visitors.

In the last few years, the range of the festival has spread significantly and the impressive roll of performers now includes top names from the world of comedy – Paul Merton, Julian Clary and Gyles Brandreth; jazz and blues – Claire Martin, Clare Teal, Joe Stilgoe and The Blues Band; and world music with artists from around the Middle East, Africa, Asia, Eastern Europe and beyond.

The Petworth Festival Literary Week was established in 2011 as a sister event in the Petworth calendar. Now expanded to a full week and a half each autumn, the literary festival has seen major authors and public figures such as William Boyd, David Suchet, Tim Peake, Joanna Trollope, Max Hastings, Michael Palin, Prue Leith, Robert Harris and Dame Judi Dench lighting up the Autumn nights.

The festival celebrated two new initiatives in 2024 which again feature in 2025: The Petworth Proms, a new collaboration with the National Trust/Petworth House/Royal Academy of Music. The festival’s education and outreach programme was similarly expanded with ‘The Big Sing’ a creative music project involving all 160 pupils from Petworth Primary School culminating in a public performance at the festival’s ‘home’ venue, St Mary’s Church Petworth.