Welcome to Deal Music and Arts Festival 2025
Get ready for 11 days of culture in Deal, Sandwich and Dover. The information below gives details of all the exciting events taking place. You’ll find ticket prices and all you need to book your festival visit.
For other festival information, please browse the Festival 2025 drop down in the menu above.
“World-class culture on the doorstep”
Festival Calendar
View all this year’s events or click on the drop down menu below to browse by category.
Submerged
Enjoy an immersive performance in the basement of Deal Castle with dance, mesmerising visuals and music from Canterbury Christ Church University & Anna Phoebe.
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Submerged
Enjoy an immersive performance in the basement of Deal Castle with dance, mesmerising visuals and music from Canterbury Christ Church University & Anna Phoebe.
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Deal’s Historic Walking Tour
Join local tour guide and character George Chittenden as he plunges you into Deal’s colourful history. Book early as George always sells out!
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Royal Academy of Music Bassoon Ensemble
Marvel at the beauty of the bassoon, brought thrillingly to life in the hands of a new generation of professional musicians playing popular classical music.
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Festival Launch
Celebrate the launch of ten days of world-class music and arts in Deal at this exciting opening in Linden Hall Studio.
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Royal Academy of Music Wind Ensemble
Enjoy the brilliant sound of this wind orchestra in Mozart’s Gran Partita, and a suite of music from Richard Strauss’s opera Ariadne auf Naxos.
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Festival ExhibitionFree
This group exhibition of selected artists invited to respond to the 2025 festival’s Coastlines theme will be on show throughout the festival on Tuesday - Saturday.
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Town TakeoverFree
Watch out for pop-up music in the High Street, outside St George’s Church, around town and later in the afternoon back outside St George’s Church again.
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Marion Leeper – Storyteller
Children will be lured away from screens to enjoy stories about the extraordinary world we share, in a morning of laughter and optimism.
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A Salon – a musical morning in the home of artist Joanna Jones
Immerse yourself in an artist’s world, experience music and literature surrounded by art works by internationally celebrated artist Joanna Jones, in her home.
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Coastlines – An Oratorio of Gulls
This world premiere by composer Luke Styles and librettist Hazel Gould is performed by local school children and favourites the White Cliffs Symphonic Winds.
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Coastlines – A Storm (in 4 movements)Free
Part two of Coastlines sees the Deal Music and Arts Community Band and composer Phil Self respond to ideas inspired by the stunning local landscape.
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Quartet Page Blanche
Enjoy a high energy performance of classical and jazz works by this virtuosic French quartet playing double bass, cello, viola and violin.
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A Moment In Time – Late
Experience a late-night musical journey at this popular Dover venue featuring Max Height and Mo_Min_Ti (Paul Cheneour and Dave Robinson).
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The Smeds and the Smoos
Children can throw themselves into this family-friendly dance workshop inspired by Julia Donaldson’s book The Smeds and the Smoos.
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The Smeds and the Smoos
Children can throw themselves into this family-friendly dance workshop inspired by Julia Donaldson’s book The Smeds and the Smoos.
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The Band of His Majesty’s Royal MarinesFree
Pack your picnics for the annual feast of music from this entertaining and much-loved band, part of the town’s proud military history.
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The Manwood Singers
Leading Sandwich choir The Manwood Singers will perform a concert of popular choral music under the baton of David Smith.
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Counterpoise – A Night with Joséphine
A sensational evening of film, dance and singing that captures the spirit of 1920s’ Paris and the extraordinary story of Joséphine Baker.
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Coffee Concert – The Importance of Hearing ErnestFree
French Romantic composer Ernest Chausson’s beguiling Piano Quartet in A major is the centrepiece of a recital by the Ringlemere Ensemble.
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Nathan Williamson – Piano
This inventive British pianist gives a lunchtime concert of suites by Bach and Webern along with a new suite by Kent-born Christopher Brown.
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Nick Dear and Larushka Ivan-Zadeh in Conversation
Award-winning playwright and screenwriter, Nick Dear shares insights into his film Eroica with one of the UK’s most widely-read film critics, Larushka Ivan-Zadeh.
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Film – Eroica
Eroica, ‘the day that changed music forever’, is a BBC television film dramatising the first performance of Beethoven's Third Symphony, the Eroica.
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LENsemble Vilnius
This lively Lithuanian chamber ensemble presents a programme including Beethoven’s Trio in B flat major, Elgar’s Piano Quintet and exciting new music from Lithuania.
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Magic Lantern Workshop
A unique opportunity to get hands-on experience with a traditional magic lantern machine under the expert guidance of two international film historians.
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Filippo Tenisci – Piano
Award-winning pianist Filippo Tenisci takes time out from recording a double album of Wagner and Liszt transcriptions, to play some of these thrilling pieces.
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The Nazi Mind
Broadcaster and author Gavin Esler interviews historian and Bafta-winning film-maker Laurence Rees about his book The Nazi Mind – 12 Warnings from History.
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Magic Lantern Performance
This performance thrillingly brings to life the early cinema as pioneered by the Victorians with early film “projectors”.
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Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night with Changeling Theatre
Join us for Changeling Theatre’s ever-popular performance at the Deal Festival, which features Twelfth Night, Shakespeare’s bittersweet romantic comedy.
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Deal’s Historic Walking Tour
Join local tour guide and character George Chittenden as he plunges you into Deal’s colourful history. Book early as George always sells out!
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Across the Channel
A delightful recital given by our Young Artist in Association, Hoda Jahanpour and the pianist Vitas Li, including works by Debussy, Boulanger and Bridge.
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Secret Voices
Sarah Gristwood shares with us the secret lives of women from her “sizzling and addictive” anthology of diary entries by women throughout history.
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Film – A Late Quartet
This 2012 film about a world-renowned string quartet after its cellist Peter Mitchell (Walken) is diagnosed with Parkinson's disease is inspired by Beethoven's music.
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Spiers & Boden
One of the most loved duos on the folk scene, Spiers and Boden’s infectious, uplifting music will raise the roof of St George’s Church.
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Hiding in Plain Sight: an architectural walk from Dover to Deal
A gorgeous ramble over the White Cliffs, this architecture walk from Dover to Deal is led by architect and writer Charles Holland.
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Charlotte Spruit violin and Angus Webster piano
Classic FM rising star, Charlotte Spruit performs Beethoven and Schumann with British conductor and pianist Angus Webster.
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Black Eyed Susan
Robert Poulter’s ingenious new model theatre is the setting for this classic play, capturing Deal landmarks and using music from Jonathan Blewitt’s 1829 score.
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A Bird in Winter
Novelist Louise Doughty talks to culture writer and broadcaster Christopher Cook about her most recent novel A Bird in Winter.
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Film – Searching for Sugar Man
Searching for Sugar Man, is a 2012 documentary about two fans in South Africa tracing the fate of a legendary American musician, Sixto Rodriguez.
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Black Eyed Susan
Robert Poulter’s ingenious new model theatre is the setting for this classic play, capturing Deal landmarks and using music from Jonathan Blewitt’s 1829 score.
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The Elixir of Love by Gaetano Donizetti
After a hugely successful Magic Flute in 2024’s festival, this inspiring company will return to Sandwich with Donizetti’s sun-kissed comedy The Elixir of Love.
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Maddy Coombs Quartet
Tipped as a rising talent by Jazz Wise, Maddy Coombs is one of the most exciting young musicians to have emerged from leading jazz educators Tomorrow’s Warriors.
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Solis Ensemble
End your week with an inspiring lunchtime string trio programme of Schubert, Beethoven, Sibelius and a piece by Blasio Kavuma.
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Lunchtime concert
Join musicians from One World Orchestra, a ground-breaking professional ensemble with players from diverse musical traditions and music from around the world.
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In Search of Beethoven
Hear John Suchet talk about his new book In Search of Beethoven, a deeply personal account of Suchet's relationship with the great composer.
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Pilgrimage – Sound InstallationFree
The launch of this immersive 360° sound installation. Experience the myriad, and unexpected, sounds of a wild walk along the coast path from Deal to Dover.
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Birdsong
The festival welcomes its President, leading soprano Lucy Crowe OBE, with the brilliant young Fantasia Orchestra, with music inspired by the beauty of birdsong.
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Deal Pride
Deal Music and Arts Festival is delighted to share its final weekend with Deal Pride, now in its third year.
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Pilgrimage – Sound InstallationFree
Experience the myriad, and unexpected, sounds of a wild walk along the coast path from Deal to Dover as captured in this immersive 360° sound installation.
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Pirie Poke – Human Croquet
A breathtaking and unique performance by this Czech circus duo who transform their bodies into a game of human croquet, complete with mallets and balls.
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Pirie Poke – Human Croquet
A breathtaking and unique performance by this Czech circus duo who transform their bodies into a game of human croquet, complete with mallets and balls, followed by a workshop.
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Coastlines – Sea Stories
Our final performance created around the theme of Coastlines, with a performance by jazz singer Norma Winstone and her trio, and DMA’s Creative Jazz Orchestra.
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Music4Wellbeing: SingUnitedFree
Enjoy an uplifting, interactive performance of a unique musical piece that represents living in Deal and its surrounding areas, sung by community groups.
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Chaps Choir – Workshop
After their sell-out Deal performance in 2024, this joyful gang of singers returns with a community singing workshop open to all.
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Chaps Choir – Performance
Welcome back to Chaps Choir, a male voice choir like no other. Their joy-inducing repertoire has been delighting audiences around the UK since 2013.
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Pilgrimage – Sound InstallationFree
Experience the myriad, and unexpected, sounds of a wild walk along the coast path from Deal to Dover as captured in this immersive 360° sound installation.
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Festival Day at the Captain’s GardenFree
Discover the secrets of Deal’s community garden where a summery feast of art, poetry and music will take place over the middle of the day.
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Young Person’s Showcase
Young musicians from our learning projects and bursaries perform a range of pieces of their choice inspired by the festival’s Coastlines theme.
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Tomorrow’s Warriors Big Band
The Tomorrow’s Warriors’ Big Band goes back to the golden era of swing with a fabulous concert of music from the Harlem Renaissance.
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