Are you new to Basingstoke Festival? Or maybe you’ve visited the town centre before but not been to all the festival locations? We’ve put together this accessibility guide to the festival to help you plan your Festival experience.

We believe everyone should be able to enjoy the festival, so we offer easy-read guides, touch tours and BSL interpreted performances, find out more below!

Basingstoke Festival is Basingstoke’s award-winning annual free outdoor summer arts festival, delight your senses with street theatre, visual arts, circus, storytelling, music and dance.

Basingstoke Festival takes place from Friday 20 June to Sunday 6 July with a packed programme of free street performances across three weekends in Basingstoke town centre and other locations across Basingstoke and Deane. You can also enjoy other community events taking place during the festival dates.

To help plan your arrival into Basingstoke and Deane, please see our main ‘Getting here’ page which includes details of all festival locations and access guides from AccessAble for the train and bus station, parking at Festival Place and The Malls Shopping Centre and other venues.

Performance icons are available to offer quick guidance to each event. You will find these located on the website and printed programme.

Relaxed performances

All our performances are relaxed, which means the environment is designed to be flexible. For example, if you need to take a break from a performance, you can simply leave the space and return as and when you wish to. We aim to be really honest about the content of each show on our website performance pages, but if you want more up to date information, please contact the festival team in advance. You can guarantee one of the team will have seen it! 

New for 2025: Quiet Zones

These can be found in London Street by the Triumphal Gates (all three weekends) and in the War Memorial Park (weekends one and two only). This space will offer you a break from the hustle of the festival should you wish to step away from the noise and have a moment of calm. Chill out on us!

BSL interpreters

BSL interpreters will be present on each Saturday of the festival. Follow route two of our ‘how to see everything in a day guides’ linked below to see the shows with BSL interpretation. 

Weekend one – how to see everything in one day
Weekend two – how to see everything in one day
Weekend three – how to see everything in one day

Easy Read Guides are available for the following shows:

Noisy, Noise, Noise from Working Boys Club
Patois from Jeanefer Jean-Charles
Bee-ology from Bumble Movement Arts

A touch your is available for visually impaired audiences at the Farm Yard Circus performances. If you would like to experience a touch tour, please speak to one of the festival team at the relevant performance location. 

Farm Yard Circus performs on:
Weekend one

Audio descriptions may be available for certain shows within the Basingstoke Festival 2025 programme, please check back soon for updates.

If you have any questions prior to joining us at the Festival, please e-mail festival@basingstoke.gov.uk or chat to one of the staff you’ll find in a bright pink t-shirt on the days of the festival at the performance locations.