About Bruton Festival of Arts
The Bruton Festival of Arts is a month long festival culminating with the Packhorse Fair, which aims to showcase talent from Bruton and the surrounding areas and promote the arts as a benefit to all. It is a non-commercial enterprise and all profits are put back into the festival and other year round arts events for the benefit of the town.
History
The first Packhorse Fair was held in 1999, borne of an idea to form The Bruton Festival of Arts in 1998 at a meeting in the then Royal Oak public house.
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Events at the festivals were organised in collaboration with other societies and groups within the community. Bruton Museum, the Choral Society, Bruton Trust, and The Bruton Players, all pulled something out of the bag, while the festival committee concentrated on art exhibitions, literary events, musical entertainments, and - its most ambitious project - a day-long fair!
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The first of these was billed as a Mediaeval Fayre (for which the members of the committee and plenty of punters and store-holders dressed accordingly). The following year its name was changed to The Packhorse Fair, freeing up the organisers from the time-consuming tracking down of tights, codpieces and wimples.
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Year after year the festival expanded to the point of evolving into something like a Coronation fete / Glastonbury Festival mash-up, attracting thousands of visitors.
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Then in 2019 the organisers decided to take a well-deserved break, which - because of world events - lasted longer than they had imagined.
25 years of the Bruton Festival of Arts
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2024 marks 25 years since the Bruton Festival of Arts was launched, and this year the festival is back!
On May 27th we're bringing a scaled-down festival to the community, with Bruton Museum leading the way in reviving that old tradition of laying on a host of other interesting events in the run-up to and aftermath of the big day itself.
So, have a look, see what’s going on and join in the fun!
We can't wait to spend some time with you all again.
