It’s party time at the Cornerstone – and everyone is invited. In just five years, the arts centre has become such an integral part of Didcot that it’s hard to imagine the town without it. Now organisers are determined to celebrate in style.

“It’s been an exciting five years,” says Emma Dolman, who has been the Cornerstone’s artistic director since it began in 2008. “We have developed a lot, but some core things have remained the same. That’s why it doesn’t feel like five years, because they feel like five very different years. We opened with a huge amount of things and we’ve pretty much maintained the number of things we do - classes, workshops, shows, gallery exhibitions. So it’s remained true to what people really loved when we opened.

“We’re really using this fifth birthday celebration as a way to say thank you to people, but also to remind people we’re here. “If they haven’t been for a while, to kind of jolt their memory – and maybe people who haven’t heard of us, it will be a reason for them to try us for the first time. If you come here once, I think you’ll come back lots of times.”

We are sitting in the very pleasant, spacious and airy café/bar, which will play a central role in the birthday celebrations. The two-day jamboree kicks off on Friday with Alice Francis, the First Lady of Cool Swing, with her electro band and swing dancers. There will also be a massive birthday cake. “Everyone gets to take a piece away at the end,” promises Emma. “And we’ve got these fabulous light walkers – women on stilts with illuminated costumes. So they’ll be walking around before and afterwards and during the interval.”

Sounds very Henley Festival, I suggest. “It is like that, exactly! Quirky and kind of special.”

Saturday is open day at the Cornerstone, which will be buzzing with a huge variety of interactive, family-friendly events going on in all the rooms, including a treasure hunt, face painting, dressing up, walkabout theatre, a couple of special shows in the auditorium, an artistic timeline to which the public can add their own special dates, funfair-type stalls outside and an all-day barbecue in the café/bar.

One of the wackier events is a professional theatre company performing in the ladies’ toilet. “It’s all in the theme of finding things in places you wouldn’t normally find them,” explains Emma. “So it’s all very interactive and immediate.”

The open day ends at 6pm, and then the evening events kick in. “At 7 o’clock we’ve got a bar gig, then at 8.30pm the café/bar is transformed into a cabaret area. At 10pm there will be a Motown and Swing DJ. So all the senses have been stimulated, and people can just kick back and dance. It’s supposed to be really good fun, very easy for people to participate in. It’s not regimented apart from the things that have to have a start time like the things in the auditorium. “It’s a chance for people to see things art and entertainment can do.”

Cornerstone fifth birthday fun
Cornerstone, Didcot
September 13 and 14
Visit cornerstone-arts.org