Need to Know
Lots of useful information about this year’s Little Big Town Festival
Little Big Town – how it works
Unlike conventional festivals where you pay a flat fee for entry to everything, The Little Big Town is different. Our free and individually-priced events take place over four days and nights in three venues in the centre of Ashburton, with additional performance spaces in the closed-off streets, and you can choose which of those you’d like to attend.
Our paid-for performances have a charge ranging from £5 to £15. You can buy tickets for these on Eventbrite: each event has its individual listing rather than all being grouped together under The Little Big Town Festival.
We will keep back a number of tickets for each event that can be bought from our Information Caravan or on the door at the event.
Most of our talks and workshops are free, though as a self-funding Community Interest Company we would welcome donations. You’ll find information on workshops that need to be booked or that carry a charge on the individual listings on our What’s On page.
Additionally, you’ll find our Little Big Town Food & Drink tent both Saturday and Sunday, and there are many wonderful restaurants and cafes in Ashburton to satisfy your appetite.
Ashburton itself and getting here
We’ve held festivals on a farm and we’ve held festivals in the town, and although a farm is a wonderful place to camp, enjoy the scenery and temporarily escape work and real life, given the unpredictable summers of the last few years, bricks and mortar win out over rain and excessive heat.
Our home town, Ashburton, provides the perfect compromise. With our lovely festival being held in the very centre of town, you’re still very aware of Dartmoor just beyond, so it is unlike taking part in a metropolitan event.
Our performances, talks and workshops take place in three beautiful venues: Ashburton Town Hall; Ashburton Arts Centre and the historic St Lawrence Chapel. We’ve closed off the centre of town, too, so that you can wander safely from venue to venue, and the streets are lined with places to sit, with stages and marquees offering further entertainment.
For those coming from further afield, Ashburton is perfectly placed. Just off the A38, we offer a Park and Ride facility on Saturday only from the outskirts of town into the centre. Look for signs marked Park & Ride at Dartmoor Academy, on the north end of town. It will cost just £5 per vehicle to park your car and catch our bus into town and back again. Or, if you’re coming by train, Newton Abbot is the nearest station, just seven miles away, and you can hail a cab or take a bus to Ashburton.
There are car parks in Ashburton itself. Consider car-sharing if you can!
Places to Stay
Why not make a weekend of it if you are coming from further afield? For hotels or private rentals, check out websites such as discoverashburton.info, visitdevon.co.uk, booking.com, trivago.co.uk or airbnb.co.uk.
If you fancy camping, we can’t recommend Summerhill Farm Campsite highly enough. Go to http://summerhillfarmcampsite.co.uk for further information.
Also in Ashburton …
Bank Youth Project Open Day
Celebrating its Silver Jubilee this year, the Bank Youth Project is holding an Open Day on Saturday 16 September. Created for all young people aged between nine and 19 living in and around Ashburton, its mission is to empower and support children and young people to improve their life opportunities by helping them grow both as individuals and as members of the community. It does this by providing a safe space they can call their own. Here they can relax, be creative, have fun, make friends, develop interests and skills, talk and discuss, increase self-awareness, take on responsibility, seek advice and support, and increase their understanding of the community around them and their involvement in it.
Why not drop in to learn more about this wonderful facility?
10 East Street, Ahsburton
The Ashburton Food & Drink Festival
Coinciding this year with us on Saturday is the Ashburton Food & Drink Festival, bringing more to see and do in North Street and Saint Lawrence Lane.
Offering a wonderful street market with entertainments and a carnival atmosphere, the food festival consists of more than 40 stallholders showcasing local and regional quality produce.
Many of the producers taking part come from within ten miles of Ashburton, reflecting the enthusiasm that everyone has for this lovely day out. Load up your shopping baskets, buy something to eat and drink, and sit and watch the world go by at one of the many tables we provide.
About Ashburton Little Big Town Festival
In our day-to-day lives we have a background in the National Health Service, Education and national broadsheet newspapers; but we have also played key roles at the best festivals – namely Glastonbury Festival and the late Port Eliot Festival. We formed a Community Interest Company to create Ashburton Little Big Town Festival because we strongly believe that communities in rural areas like Ashburton should not have to travel to larger cities such as Plymouth, Exeter and beyond to access the arts, be they music of all genres, theatre, art and literature, to name a few. The cost in travel and time is high, as well as its ecological impact, and by depriving rural communities of access to the arts it not only diminishes our cultural lives, it also prevents young people from realising the career opportunities the arts provide – not just in performance but also in related industries.
That is why we are committed to bringing the arts to Ashburton for the benefit of its community and for the neighbouring towns and villages. We plan, in addition to hosting performances of many genres, to offer workshops for young and old, as well as mentorships for young people. Additionally, by providing free or subsidised workshops, we want to both connect people to new interests and old hobbies, fostering a sense of civic pride, community and new connections, as well as alleviating loneliness, a very 21st century malaise. And, finally, we hope that The Little Big Town will create work for the local community and bring more tourism to the town.
We are a not-for-profit company and we hope to bring culture, enjoyment and prospects to you all! Please support us. We are here for you.
Thank you …
We would like to thank the following for their help, encouragement and support: Ashburton Chamber of Trade, Ashburton Tourist Information Centre, Ashburton Town Council, David Kilkelly of BlinkBack, Ryan Havinga of WM Guitars, Jenny Donaldson of Gnash Comics, Andy Williamson and Ashburton Arts Centre, St Lawrence Chapel, Paul Parker, Tom and Anita Walker, Bryar Bakery and Reuben Lenkiewicz. Thanks also to all the performers, crew and everyone who participated in our talks, exhibitions and workshops. Thank you, all. We couldn’t have done it without you.
ANY QUESTIONS? Contact us on info@thelittlebigtown.com