Nicola Lisle discovers some of the treats on offer at this year’s Dorchester Festival

‘We get through something like 2,000 pieces of cake,” says Steph Forman, founder and director of the Dorchester-on-Thames Festival. “It really is extraordinary how much cake people can eat over ten days!”

It’s not just food, of course, that’s on this particular menu. There’s something to please every palate at this popular biennial event, from classical music to folk and pop, with theatre, comedy, cookery demonstrations, a food fair and children’s parties thrown into the mix.

There are also some fairly wacky events, including a duck race, a scarecrow trail round the village and a sponsored abseil down the tower of Dorchester Abbey.

Money raised will be split between the abbey and this year’s local charity, PACT, a leading adoption charity.

Now marking its 10th anniversary, the festival grew out of a major fundraising campaign to renovate Dorchester Abbey.

“We got to the end of the fundraising and we thought it’s a shame that this is only seen by a few people on a Sunday,” says Steph. “So the first festival was primarily an effort to simply get more people through the door to appreciate what we had and what we had spent the money on.

“Everyone had an enormous amount of fun, and there was this expectation that we’d go through this madness all over again!

“When we first did it my children were tiny and I organised the first one with two small children under my arms. Now my son is organising the duck race and my daughter is serving tea. How lovely is that!”

Somehow this tiny rural festival succeeds in attracting big names from the entertainment world. A must-see event for classical music fans is a concert by The Tallis Scholars, who will perform music from their new album, Tintinnabuli, released in March to mark the 80th birthday of Arvo Pärt, together with other favourites from their repertoire.

“They’ve been before and it’s lovely to hear them in a building like this,” says Steph. “It’s just beautiful. When they came last time it was breathtaking. Things like that make the festival really special.”

Another big draw is a Come and Sing day in Dorchester Abbey with popular choral composer and conductor John Rutter. Singers of all levels are welcome, and the repertoire will cover a range of choral music old and new, along with some of John’s own compositions.

Already popular in Dorchester through her appearances with the OSJ is virtuoso pianist Maki Sekiya, and she will be joined on the second Friday by rising young mezzo soprano Charlotte Tetley for a musical ‘Tour de Force’.

Bringing the festival to a close will be the acclaimed Oxford all-male a cappella group Out of the Blue, who will also be giving afternoon workshops.

One of the lovely things about Dorchester Festival is that has become a major commun-ity event, run entirely by volunteers from the village.

“It’s an enormously fun, community thing,” says Steph. “It’s a great way of supporting the abbey and local charities.

“I think there’s a charm with it being run by volunteers, and it’s great to have people of all ages helping out. It gives a nice welcome feel to the whole thing.”

Dorchester-on-Thames Festival
Various venues in Dorchester
May 1-10
Tickets and details of full programme: 0333 666 3366 or dorchesterfestival.com