Theatre & Drama

Watching live entertainment shouldn’t just be for special occasions – there are enough festivals and theatres in Suffolk to keep you entertained all year round!

Unchanged since 1819, Bury St Edmunds Theatre Royal is one of just three theatres in Britain where you can enjoy an elegant, pre-Victorian theatre experience. Other notable theatres in Suffolk include the Ipswich Regent & Corn Exchange and New Wolsey Theatre in Ipswich; the Marina and Seagull theatres in Lowestoft; Fisher Theatre in Bungay; and The Cut Arts Centre in Halesworth, home to the critically acclaimed HighTide theatre festival. For a theatre experience that’s out of the ordinary, look to Red Rose Chain: a theatre company specialising in adventurous productions, such as plays performed in a forest.

There are more festivals in Suffolk than we can mention. Ipswich’s Pulse Festival and SPILL Festival keep theatre-lovers occupied, fans of horseracing flock to the Guineas and July Festival at Newmarket Racecourse, while bookworms are treated to the Lavenham Literary Festival, Aldeburgh Poetry Festival, and many more.

Equally plentiful are music festivals in Suffolk. Taking place near Southwold, Latitude Festival is known for its jaw-dropping line-ups, coming top at the UK Festival Awards to win Best Line Up in 2015. Maverick Festival suits fans of roots and Americana, while folk-lovers fit right in at FolkEast. FlipSide Festival offers a sizzling blend of Brazilian and British culture, but if you want to experience music straight from Suffolk, head to Homegrown Festival, where everyone from the acts to the food vendors are from East Anglia.

No list of music festivals in Suffolk is complete without Aldeburgh Festival, the festival of classical music founded by Benjamin Britten in 1948, nor a mention of Snape Maltings Concert Hall, a world-class venue holding concerts and festivals throughout the year.