News

Saturday 8 July 2023, 7.30pmNew Theatre Oxford Oxford Festival of the Arts is hugely thrilled to be working with our friends at the New Theatre Oxford again this year to present something very special – the Welsh National Opera with their production of Leonard Bernstein’s Candide. Leonard Bernstein’s Candide is a supercharged wild ride in which 18th-century France crashes into 20th-century post-war America. Take a seat and strap in tight for a mind-boggling journey as Read more…

Saturday 15 July 2023, 7.30pmFestival Marquee Oxford Festival of the Arts is delighted to bring to the Festival Marquee this summer the internationally acclaimed BBC Big Band who will be joined by multi award-winning vocalist Claire Martin OBE, for a sensational evening of world-class music, inspired by the great Swing bands and legendary jazz vocalists of the twentieth century. Tickets are on sale now! Through a diverse repertoire arranged and curated by the BBC Big Read more…

We are excited to announce that the dates for Oxford Festival of the Arts 2023 are 23 June – 16 July. The theme for this year’s festival is People. Stories. Histories. We have a wonderful programme of events planned. We will be welcoming the BBC Big Band with brilliant jazz vocalist Claire Martin in a sensational evening titled Divas: The Story of Swing – tickets go on sale very soon. Watch this space for further Read more…

This week we were delighted when Michele Greene of the Bicester Sculpture Group presented Helen Pike, Master of Magdalen College School, with a cash donation for the Festival’s chosen charity, the Mustardseed School in Uganda. The sculptors exhibited their work on this year’s festival, in the Rose Garden, and it was a very successful and happy collaboration. It is gratifying to see how the Festival continues to support Mustardseed, which is now a fully fledged Read more…

Inspired by Magellan’s visionary expedition, this year’s festival is a celebration of everything around us: our planet, its peoples, its creativity and ingenuity, its aspirations, and its determination to succeed… just like those who boarded that first ship which circumnavigated the world for the first time 500 years ago. Everything in this programme is linked to humanity, to freedom, to nature, to the exhilarating richness of cultural diversity, to the (subjective?) Truth, to journeys, and Read more…

Commemorating the 500th anniversary of the first ship that circumnavigated the world, OFA 2022 will be a celebration of the world in a multitude of ways – and of Oxford’s scientific, literary and creative achievement, too. We welcome distinguished performers ranging from Joseph Calleja and Brian Blessed to Phil Wang – and we look forward to your return to the Rose Garden. Come to the University Church of St Mary the Virgin to see Gaia: Read more…

We are delighted to reveal one of the first events for this year’s Festival – an evening with Fran Lebowitz at the New Theatre Oxford on 27 June 2022. “In a cultural landscape filled with endless pundits and talking heads, Fran Lebowitz stands out as one of our most insightful social commentators.” An American original, and purveyor of urban cool, the cultural satirist and author is pointed, forthright, unapologetically opinionated, and known for her hilariously Read more…