01
Visual art
Painting, drawing and original print shown in working studios, seafront windows and a converted chapel on Coombe Street. Open studios run all ten days.
Edition 18 · August 2025
Ten days of art, sea
and stories on the Jurassic Coast.
Lyme Regis turns into an open-air gallery every August Bank Holiday — 180+ makers, 27 harbour-side venues, and one working coastline as a backdrop.
Established 2007 · 18 consecutive editions
A working harbour, a town of makers, and ten unhurried days.
The Lyme Regis Arts Festival is the South West's biggest free-entry celebration of contemporary craft, painting, printmaking, performance and poetry — set against the working harbour and the Jurassic cliffs. Each August Bank Holiday we turn the town into a 10-day open-air gallery, attracting 28,000+ visitors and 180+ exhibitors.
Founded in 2007 by the Lyme Regis Community Hub and now in its eighteenth edition, the festival is steered by a volunteer board of nine trustees and a small core team. In 2023 we welcomed 31,400 visitors across the ten days — a record — and last year 184 exhibiting artists filled 27 venues, from the harbourside studios of Town Mill to pop-up rooms above the bookshops on Broad Street.
Entry has always been free. The programme is curated, carbon-neutral, and quietly ambitious: think invited sculptors from the Royal Society of Sculptors alongside painters who set up on the seafront, and a poetry tent that opens to the sound of gulls and the smell of frying fish from next door.
— The festival team, Lyme Regis Arts Festival Ltd
What's on across the ten days
Four programme pillars, one working coastline.
Painting, printmaking, sculpture, ceramics, poetry and performance — laid out across Lyme Regis so you wander between them rather than queue for them. A taste of what 2024 held; the 2025 programme is published this spring.
02
Sculpture
A trail of outdoor sculpture along the seafront and through the gardens, including invited makers from the Royal Society of Sculptors.
03
Words & performance
Readings, spoken word and small-scale performance in the Marine Theatre, the Pilot Boat inn and a pop-up poetry tent above the beach.
04
Family & making
Free drop-in workshops in printmaking, clay and drawing for children and grown-ups, programmed in partnership with Dorset Wildlife Trust.
Is this for you?
Four ways in, depending on how you're arriving.
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01
Visiting Lyme Regis
Planning a summer trip to the Jurassic Coast? The festival runs across the August Bank Holiday weekend and the week that follows. Pick up the programme to plan your route through the town.
Visitor information → -
02
Exhibiting at the festival
Applications for the 2025 open studios and outdoor sculpture trail open in early spring. The festival works with 180+ makers each year and welcomes applications from across the UK.
Apply & exhibitor info → -
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Bringing the family
Free drop-in workshops run most mornings across the ten days, with printmaking, clay and drawing stations suitable for ages four and up. Buggy-friendly venues are marked in the printed programme.
Family programme → -
04
Supporting the festival
The festival is a small charity and a free-entry event. Friends, patrons and corporate supporters help us programme the sculpture trail and keep entry free for everyone, every year.
Support the festival →
Eighteen editions and counting
A small festival that has grown up, slowly and on purpose.
18
consecutive editions
Founded in August 2007 by the Lyme Regis Community Hub and held every year since.
31,400
visitors in 2023
A record attendance across the ten-day run — confirmed in the post-event survey.
184
exhibiting artists in 2024
Across 27 harbour-side venues, including 24 invited sculptors from the Royal Society of Sculptors.
94%
visitor satisfaction, 2024
From 812 responses in the post-event survey — and entry has always been free.
£1.6m average economic impact on Lyme Regis, per the 2023 Dorset Council report.
Press & recognition
“One of the most quietly ambitious arts festivals on the English coast — a ten-day open studio with the sea as its backdrop and a town that genuinely turns out for it.”
Winner — Dorset Tourism Awards, Best Event of the Year (2018, 2021) · Shortlisted — AIF Pioneer Award (2022) · Featured — Country Living arts picks (2024)
About the festival →