The 2025 Programme
Ten days of art, sea & stories on the Jurassic Coast.
From the Town Mill to the Marine Theatre, Lyme Regis becomes a ten‑day open‑air gallery. Free entry, every venue, every strand — the full schedule lives inside the 2025 programme guide.
Programme Orientation
One town, five strands, ten days — every chapter free to enter.
The 2025 programme is built around five overlapping strands — Visual Art, Craft & Ceramics, Performance, Poetry & Literature, and Workshops & Family — threaded through more than 27 venues across Lyme Regis. You can read it day by day, venue by venue, or by the kind of work you came for; every route leads back to the same harbour.
Inside the guide you'll find a day‑by‑day schedule, venue maps, exhibitor notes, and the practical information you need to plan a visit. The festival has never charged admission in 18 consecutive editions — the only cost is the time you choose to give it.
- 27+venues acting as galleries & stages
- 5overlapping programme strands
- 10days from open to close
- £0admission, every edition since 2007
The Walking Route
Every Lyme Regis venue is a chapter of the programme.
The festival has no single site. Instead, the town itself is the gallery — the mill, the theatre, the harbour, the beach. Below, four signature venues where most of the 2025 programme will unfold.
-
01
Town Mill Studios
The festival's curatorial home — a working watermill turned into printmaking, ceramics and painting studios. The 2025 Visual Art strand launches here with the open‑studios weekend.
-
02
The Marine Theatre
An intimate 165‑seat playhouse on the beach, hosting the Performance strand — poetry readings, spoken word, dance and small‑scale theatre across ten evenings.
-
03
The Harbour & Old Town
Open‑air sculpture on the quayside, pop‑up printmaking in shop windows, and the weekend makers' market winding through Broad Street and the Cobb.
-
04
Monmouth Beach
The Dorset Wildlife Trust walks, fossil‑finding mornings and outdoor land‑art commissions that anchor the festival's UNESCO Jurassic Coast partnership.
By Art Form
Five strands, ten days — choose your chapter.
A short preview of how the 2025 programme is arranged. The full venue list, times and exhibitor notes live in the programme guide.
-
01
Visual Art
Painting, printmaking, photography and mixed‑media exhibitions across the Town Mill and the town's independent galleries. The 2025 strand includes invited makers from the Royal Society of Sculptors.
-
02
Craft & Ceramics
Throwing, hand‑built ceramics, textiles and wood. Studio open‑doors and a curated makers' market running the second weekend of the festival.
-
03
Performance
Ten evenings at the Marine Theatre — small‑scale theatre, dance, live music and site‑specific promenade pieces along the Cobb and the harbour wall.
-
04
Poetry & Literature
Readings, workshops and a Dorset Poets' Day hosted with regional presses. Poetry appears in galleries, in the theatre and out on the cliff path.
-
05
Workshops & Family
Drop‑in printmaking, fossil walks with the Dorset Wildlife Trust, and family clay mornings. Most workshops are free; ticketed sessions appear in the guide.
A Note From The Director
“What we wanted for 2025 was a programme that asked you to slow down — to walk between venues, to come back to the same artist on a second visit, to let the cliffs and the sea do some of the curating. Every strand is built to reward the visitor who treats the ten days as a single, quiet conversation with the town.”
Festival Director · Lyme Regis Arts Festival
The 2025 Guide
Carry the whole ten days in your pocket.
Download the 2025 programme guide — every venue, every day, every strand, plus maps, exhibitor notes and the practical information you'll want before you set off for the Jurassic Coast.