Art, crafts, live theatre, music, dance and film – a guide to Marches Makers Festival

The 6th Marches Makers Festival returns this year after a break in 2025 to champion the wealth of creative talent in the area.

The festival this year features 36 artists and makers in a curated exhibition in St Mary's Church in Kington, eight Open Studios, five Independent Exhibitions, and live theatre, music, dance and film!

The popular festival, which will take place from Saturday, May 2 until Monday, May 4, celebrates the art and craft made by artists and craftspeople based within 20 miles of Kington.

Beginning in 2018, the festival has grown into an event which honours the act of making in a wider sense. Not only in terms of art and craft, but also the making of music, the crafting of words, the creation of drama. ‘Folk’ is the theme that will link the community offerings this year.

Nancy Frost of the festival said: “Folk culture is all around us, from folk art, music and making to heritage arts and crafts. Folk is a link to our shared history, rituals and traditions – a force bringing communities together to celebrate and make sense of our rapidly changing world.” At the festival the folk theme will be celebrated by inviting everyone to join in the traditional rite of welcoming the summer with Maypole dancing, to watch demonstrations of local heritage crafts people, by writing their own folk tales and trying their hand at learning a new skill or enjoying the spectacle of Morris dancing and much more.

The signature exhibition will take place in the space of the 13th Century St Mary’s Church. Curated by Nicki Cornish it highlights the work of 36 artists and makers.

The artists include Rosamund Black who has spent most of her working life involved in costume and textiles and now jewellery making, Jason Braham who makes pots for use, painter Julienne Braham, potter Nancy Frost, printmaker Nicki Cornish, forged metal artist Kit Garnett, commercial sculptor Sally Hamer, watercolour artist Sarah Hanner Hopwood, handweaver Janet van der Linden, wood turner Tinka Velduis and many more.

The second main venue is the Market Hall. It will be a hub of activity giving visitors the chance to paint a folk art tile, make a mask or create a personal folk charm.

For youngsters there will be play in a clay tray, there will be an opportunity to read a folktale or watch makers demonstrating basket making, calligraphy, wood-turning, pottery, painting and more.

The Museum of Curiosities returns with a challenge to create an original folk story inspired by the collection.

On Saturday, May 2 there will be a variety of ceramicists demonstrating their techniques, on Sunday, May 3 there is a textile theme highlighting wool, alpaca and flax processes and on Monday, May 4 there will be a May Day Marketplace of Makers.

There will be a chance to watch clog making and blacksmithing in action or try spinning and weaving.

Open studios will take place all over Kington and its environs.

Jeremy Atkinson, the last traditional clog-maker making bespoke clogs in England will open his workshop on Duke Street, artist Peter Horrocks who creates arts with natural earth pigments will open his studio and The Old Shoe Shop will be open on featuring Alan Kerr -a gunpowder and natural pigment painter, and picture framer, Celia Kibblewhite: crafter herbalist and botanical lampshade maker, Simon Bastian: landscape painter in acrylics and Bernard Ray: former owner of Grandad’s Shed and antique ironwork collector.

Kathryn Moore will open her studio and show off her unique paintings, some of Rachel Ricketts’ ceramic sculptures can be seen at St Mary’s Church and a range of paintings, sculpture and cards will be available at the studio where you may also meet the artist. Her bronze hound, Fly, can be seen outside Kington Museum, James Burnett Stuart, Angela Soulier and Kit Garnett will also all open their work spaces to visitors.

Other events throughout the town will include an exhibition by Kington Primary School pupils at Border Bean Café, various exhibitions at Flock, Marches Book Arts Group at the Parish Hall, The Jess Collective exhibition at Ridgebank Contemporary Art Space and a celebration of The Words of the People focussing on the wonderful local dialect and words from around Herefordshire and the Marches, at the Oxford Arms.

About Face theatre group will present Just Visiting at Saturday noon, at Kington Primary School.It is a gentle dance with the duality of grief, discovering joy and meaning amongst a landscape of loss. Tickets £8 available at Flock, 12 Church Street, HR5 3AZ

There will be dance for the first time at the festival at the Market Hall and Oxford Arms including Maypole Dance on Saturday and Sunday, and witness ancient practices brought into contemporary relevance with Morris sides Gidderskins on Saturday and Pinsley Mill on Sunday.

St Mary’s Church will host a concert on Saturday, May 2 at 7.30pm featuring Leila Basletic on the piano and organ, Peter Cornish on clarinet and Ruth Watson on the oboe, cor anglais;

Following recent acclaimed performances in Radnorshire and Herefordshire, this trio of local professional musicians will perform a varied programme to include Andrey Rubtsov’s “Roses of Heliogabalus” – with its folk and klezmer elements – and compositions by Vaughan Williams, Satie, and Gershwin.

It is free with a collection at end of performance.

Meanwhile the Old Picture House on Bridge Street will show the film The Colour Room (PG) on Sunday doors open 7pm and the film starts 7.30pm

It is a biographical drama covering the life of Clarice Cliff, 1920s ceramic artist, and creator of some of the most iconic products of the Art Deco era. Starring Phoebe Dynevor and directed by Clare McCarthy.

Tickets are £6.50

During the festival the Christine Forrester prize will be awarded to a maker or group whose work embodies the qualities that inspired Chris.

Chris’s vision of the power of the arts to enrich people and their communities helped give birth to the first Festival of Makers in 2018.

Her professional life took her to many corners of the world working to build communities in countries undergoing major and often traumatic change but she always said that Kington and its community was the home that rooted her.

She often said she wanted to give something back to Kington which she loved. The emergence of opportunities brought by the new galleries, a thriving craft market, and artist and makers willing and eager to develop a showcase for their work were the sparks that led to that first Festival and subsequent festivals.

Her vision of showing the creativity and originality of local artists and makers in the Marches was shared by many others who continue to keep that vision alive. Chris died in 2019.

The festival exhibitions and open studios will be open from 10am until 4pm from Saturday to Monday unless otherwise specified. The signature exhibition at the church will not be open until 11.30am on Sunday due to communion

For more information visit www.marchesmakers.co.uk