Culture
English culture encompasses everything from vintage fashion to futuristic architecture crowned with swish rooftop restaurants and bars. Culture old and new fuses effortlessly in our big cities, where Victorian museums host cutting-edge modern artists. And you’ll find hoards of cultural activities in the countryside and along the coast too. Follow sculpture trails hidden in woodlands, walk in the footsteps of your favourite fictional characters on a film or literature tour, catch a film screening in the grounds of a Tudor mansion and stop by one of numerous art galleries popping up in seaside resorts on your cultural holidays.
Get your jazz hands out for the Scarborough Jazz Festival
Each September, the annual Scarborough Jazz Festival on Yorkshire’s north coast provides the ideal tonic for music lovers to wash away those summer blues.
Location: Scarborough, North Yorkshire
July events: WOMAD Festival
Grab your tent and learn more about cultures across the world at the long-running World of Music, Arts and Dance Festival.
Location: Malmesbury, Wiltshire
Watch Indie A-listers at the End of the Road Festival
The intimate surroundings of the End of the Road Festival give you the chance to get up close and personal with the bands and their music.
Location: Larmer Tree Gardens, North Dorset
July events: Cambridge Folk Festival
Join thousands in enjoying some of the finest folk music in Europe, at a gorgeous country hall in Cambridge.
Location: Cambridge, Cambridgeshire
July festivals: Durham Brass
Brass is given a modern twist with art installations in the streets and a dose of contemporary hip hop at BRASS Durham International Festival.
Location: Durham
See musical legends at Cheltenham Jazz Festival
Swing into springtime in style at Cheltenham Jazz Festival, one of the leading Jazz events in England.
Location: Cheltenham, Gloucestershire
July events: Latitude Festival
Combine sing-your-heart-out music, wild swimming, theatre, comedy, great food and family-friendly activities and you have Latitude Festival, held in Henham Park, Suffolk.
Location: Suffolk
July events: Standon Calling
Head to Standon in Hertfordshire for a three-day summer party featuring huge music acts, an on-site nightclub and bars that never close.
Location: Standon, Hertfordshire
Hang with the hipsters at Field Day
The coolest festival in London is back and better than ever.
Location: London
July events: Beat-Herder Festival
See big-name dance acts and eclectic live bands at a summer festival that brings the funk to the farmland for three days in July.
Location: Sawley, Lancashire
July events: Bluedot festival
Go stargazing while being star struck by an out-of-this-world line-up of musical talent at bluedot festival.
Location: Blackden, Cheshire
August events: Lost Village Festival
Take a trip into the surreal landscape of large-scale, interactive theatre performance art. In the woods. With DJs.
Location: Norton Disney, Lincolnshire
July events: Tramlines Festival
Tramlines Festival rolls into Sheffield each summer, bringing the party to Hillsborough Park with four stages of lots of top musical acts.
Location: Sheffield, South Yorkshire
July events: Mouth of the Tyne Festival
Hop on the metro from Newcastle and be transported to a chilled-out, seaside music festival that mixes live music, performing arts, food and crafts.
Location: Tynemouth, Tyne and Wear