Sherborne Abbey Fest

Annual award-winning music Festival in Sherborne, Dorset. 2025 Festival Dates: 1st-8th May 🎶🎵🎻🎺🎷

[Sherborne Abbey Fest @AbbeyFestival]

We’re so pleased that a Festival grant enabled Andrés to have this experience – and even more pleased to hear just how much he got from it. 💛

[Sherborne Abbey Fest @AbbeyFestival]

🎶 We thought you might like to hear what one of our young grant recipients got up to this summer…

Andrés spent a week at a summer music camp at Wells Cathedral School – and by the sound of it, he had a brilliant time!

[Sherborne Abbey Fest @AbbeyFestival]

Andrés came home inspired, having learnt just as much from the other young musicians around him as he did from his teachers – which is surely one of the loveliest things about making music together.

Here he is performing during the week, and with his fellow young musicians 🎶

[Sherborne Abbey Fest @AbbeyFestival]

It’s why creating opportunities for young people to experience the joy of making music together will continue to be such an important part of the Sherborne Abbey Festival.

#DorsetMusic #musiclovers #YouthMusic #musicoutreach

[Sherborne Abbey Fest @AbbeyFestival]

We don't keep music alive by preserving it. We keep it alive by passing it on. 🎶

[Sherborne Abbey Fest @AbbeyFestival]

But they’ll all remember what it felt like to sit in the middle of a huge ensemble and make that sound together.

And perhaps that’s how music stays alive – each generation discovering it, experiencing it and making it their own.

[Sherborne Abbey Fest @AbbeyFestival]

And if you’d like to experience the Choir in the Abbey, they now begin their weekly pattern of Sung Eucharist at 9.30am on Sundays and Choral Evensong at 6.00pm on Thursdays (from 17 September) and Sundays.

📸 Photo credit: Sherborne Abbey Choir

[Sherborne Abbey Fest @AbbeyFestival]

One of the great joys of Sherborne is that beautiful music in the Abbey continues all year round. 🎶

It’s always such a pleasure to hear Sherborne Abbey Choir during the Festival, filling that magnificent space with the rich, distinctive sound we know so well.

[Sherborne Abbey Fest @AbbeyFestival]

This week the Choir begins a new year of music-making – with some new members joining the ranks too! We wish them all a very happy year ahead and look forward to hearing plenty more from them.

[Sherborne Abbey Fest @AbbeyFestival]

And, while we’re celebrating Solomon’s Knot, we spotted that they’re currently looking for a new Executive Director to help lead the ensemble into its next chapter. If that sounds like you, do take a look at their page for full details. Applications close 31 August.

[Sherborne Abbey Fest @AbbeyFestival]

🎶 Some Festival moments stay with you…

Eight exceptional singers, performing entirely from memory. Virtuoso Baroque instrumentalists. The music of Bach filling Sherborne Abbey. And an audience completely absorbed in every note.

[Sherborne Abbey Fest @AbbeyFestival]

And then came a final gift: the Dona nobis pacem from Bach’s B minor Mass – a moment that had the audience on the edge of their seats.

We weren’t the only ones left wanting more; afterwards, there were plenty of requests to bring this remarkable ensemble back to Sherborne!

[Sherborne Abbey Fest @AbbeyFestival]

So, whether you were there and fancy reliving a few favourite moments, or you missed us this year and would like a taste of Festival week, settle in and take a little trip back with us… 💛🎶

👉 Read our 2026 Festival highlights: https://t.co/qo2HGO2GR8

[Sherborne Abbey Fest @AbbeyFestival]

🎶 We’ve taken a little time out from planning the 2027 Festival to look back and share our reflections on the performances, people and experiences that made this year’s Festival so special.

[Sherborne Abbey Fest @AbbeyFestival]

From spellbinding evenings in the Abbey and intimate recitals, to jazz, opera, extraordinary young musicians and plenty of memorable moments along the way – what a week it was!

[Sherborne Abbey Fest @AbbeyFestival]

This glorious weather has us reminiscing about some of the beautiful Festival days we've enjoyed in recent years. ☀️

We really have been blessed with some wonderful Festival weather over the years – and these photographs are such a lovely reminder. 🌿🎶

[Sherborne Abbey Fest @AbbeyFestival]

...Volunteers keeping everything running smoothly behind the scenes – and enjoying a concert or two themselves!

These photographs capture a little of what Festival week felt like – and what a wonderful week it was.

[Sherborne Abbey Fest @AbbeyFestival]

🎶 A few moments from Festival week…

The music may have been the reason we came together, but the Festival is made up of so many moments in between.

The anticipation before a concert begins. Familiar faces meeting again. Conversations over a glass in the interval...