Sculpture by the Lakes

Celebrate all things gardens and gardening with us! From Wednesday 25th - Sunday 29th May the Dorset Garden Festival is back.

This year the Dorset Garden Festival, for the first time, is in conjunction with the Fire and Food Festival. An exciting array of stalls selling not just plants but all things for outdoor living.

Fire and Food will include demonstrations from renowned chefs cooking over fire. Sales of cutting-edge Studio Gudgeon-designed BBQ’s, fire pits and alfresco dining equipment.

Not to be missed to get your garden 'summer ready'.

It will also be the last week of FORM: The Sculpture Show so lots to see and do!

An amazing award winning five day festival showcasing the best artists and makers in Dorset. We will have over 60 artists, crafters and makers gathered together at Sculpture by the Lakes to demonstrate their skills. You will be able to watch paintings being created, pots being thrown, jewellery being made and a whole range of other arts and crafts disciplines being demonstrated. Our aim is to make the whole festival about seeing artists and crafters demonstrate their skills and exhibit their work so you can see and understand the process.

Old Time Sailors is a flash mob musical show designed to take the audience back in time through an unforgettable trip to the 19th century. Every member of the audience receives a copy of the Sunday Sailor, our own newspaper shaped programme which includes the lyrics to all our songs (plus personalised postal stamps!) in order to sing along and become a Sailor for one epic night!

Our second evening in The Summer Series celebrates the riotous joy of all things near Eastern. Bring a picnic or choose from a sumptuous selection of wood fired dining and food from the new Outdoor Kitchen.

She'Koyokh: "Britain's best klezmer and Balkan music band" (Songlines)

For the third evening in our Summer Series the sculpture park becomes the classiest of festivals. Grab a cocktail from the bar and dance or chill out to the Still Moving DJs on our new stage. The Still-Moving DJs are a lively, unique and alternative DJ duo with a well-stocked but carefully chosen selection of music by great musicians, with live percussion, ship lanterns,

We all love the 1950s, and so our fourth evening in The Summer Series will be devoted to exactly that. Vintage cars around the site and our wood fired dining will bring out the

Look out for our wandering minstrel tonight. Harry Skinner is a much loved Blues musician and tonight he will be performing solo- who knows where you will find him? After a stroll amongst the sculpture and our visiting collection of vintage cars, join us at our new stage for a date with The Doel Brothers.

The FB Pocket Orchestra join us for the fifth evening in our Summer Series. They bring with them a new departure- a musical journey around the world. In a world where being green means less travel, let the Pocket Orchestra bear the brunt of your carbon footprint as we travel from London to Lisbon, from Paris to Peking and from Ulster to Ulaanbaattar.

Join us for a Murder Mystery finale to our Summer Season. We are catapulted back to the 1920s as we work together to solve the mystery of the murdered ballerina. Who killed her? How can we catch them? And how will the mystery be solved? Join the hunt, search for clues and watch out for a cameo from the great Simon Gudgeon himself! Sculpture by the Lakes has commissioned this special murder mystery from Russell Biles and the Strictly Murder team.

Set in the picturesque Sculpture by the Lakes park, Wellbeing by the Lakes is a 4-day festival exploring what it means to be mindful and live well in this fast-paced modern world. A curated blend of free expert talks, guided meditations, art and shopping marketplace, as well as bookable movement sessions, sound baths and healing therapies all designed to open your eyes to fresh experiences for health & wellbeing.