Our Cultural Programme of Walkabouts & Live Music for 2026 - let us entertain you!
Step into a weekend of lively encounters and unexpected delights with our Cultural programme, where the streets and historic spaces of Bishop Auckland come alive with colour, music and mischief. From roaming street performers and eccentric characters to engaging circus, theatre and spontaneous musical moments, there’s always something just around the corner to surprise and entertain. Alongside the walkabouts, enjoy a vibrant line-up of live music and hands-on arts and crafts activities in the Palace Courtyard, making this a festival full of creativity, community spirit and plenty of reasons to pause, watch, listen and join in.
Bell and Bullock – Big Bloomers
Roaming the Market Place, Newgate St, North Bondgate and the Palace Courtyard throughout the weekend.
From his mobile potting shed table, gardener Hugh Bushey Babcock shares his green fingered secrets and introduces his prize winning, walking, talking psychic plant.
With a little audience participation they use their powers of clairvoyance to deduce people’s favourite vegetables and demonstrate the giant carrot chopper (mind your fingers on the guillotine – they could end up in the soup!)
Saturday 18th April – 11:00 / 13:00 /15:00
Sunday 19th April – 11:00 / 13:00 /15:00
Granny Turismo
Roaming the Market Place, Newgate St, North Bondgate and the Palace Courtyard throughout the weekend.
Meet the World’s first – and only! – Shopping Trolley Dance Display Team.
The ladies from Granny Turismo have been delighting audiences since 2009 are now one of the most talked-about and enduring acts around. Part walkabout, part circle show and wholly engaging – The show has universal appeal. When these girls arrive on their souped-up shopping trolleys, everyone takes notice.
Saturday 18th April – 10:30 / 12:30 / 14:30
Sunday 19th April – 11:00 / 12:30 / 14:00
Bread and Butter Theatre Company
Roaming the Market Place, Newgate St, North Bondgate and the Palace Courtyard throughout the weekend.
Meet Heidi and her trusty shepherd, Farmer Pat. They have ventured down from the Lakeland fells to proudly show off their newborn lambs, nestled in a beautiful old-fashioned pram.
It is a little-known fact that Herdwick sheep are amazing dancers, so why not join in?
Saturday 18th April – 10:00 / 12:00 /14:00 / 16:00
Sunday 19th April – 10:30 / 12:30 / 14:30
The Ran Tanners
Roaming the Market Place, Newgate St, North Bondgate and the Palace Courtyard throughout the weekend.
The Ran Tanners are a pair of roving miscreants who (when not doing hard labour in chokey or dodging the pressgang), play the traditional music of Georgian and Victorian England using Fiddles, Bagpipes and Squeezeboxes.
Saturday 18th April – 11:30 / 13:30 / 15:30
Stanley Youngman Comedy Street Theatre
Outside No.43 Market Place
A brilliant street circus performer, marvel as Stanley showcases his juggling talents. With lots of mad-cap antics and audience interaction this ‘Comedy Street Theatre’ that is guaranteed to bring smiles to faces.
Saturday 18th April – 11:30 / 13:00 /14:30
Sunday 19th April – 11:00 / 12:30 / 14:00
Mick Arnell
Having fronted an array of bands down the years and making no less than three appearances at Glastonbury Festival, this talented singer songwriter is still going strong as Mick Arnell & The Kets. Mick’s new crop of songs explores social and political issues as well as personal relationships.
Appearing Saturday 18th
Market Place – 10.00 & 14:00
Palace Courtyard – 12:00
Spennymoor Town Band
Under their Musical Director Fiona Casewell, Spennymoor Town Band has qualified for the National Finals three times in the past seven years.
The band sees itself at the heart of the community, performing regularly at engagements supporting local charities and organisations. Spennymoor also has a progressive Youth Band which offers lessons and the loan of an instrument free of charge.
Appearing Saturday 18th
Market Place – 11:00 / 13.00 / 15:00
Isabel Maria
Isabel Maria’s quietly passionate and painfully articulate lyrics gained her the coveted 2024 Alan Hull Award. The Sunderland based singer-songwriter pens witty indie folk-pop ballads which capture the broad, winding themes of mental health, human relationships, and social injustices.
Appearing Saturday 18th
Palace Courtyard – 11:00 / 13.00 / 15:00
Appearing Sunday 19th
Market Place – 13.30 & 15:00
Palace Courtyard – 11:30
Steve Pledger
Award-winning singer/songwriter, Steve Pledger, will be appearing at this year’s festival. As well as performing a few of his own songs, expect a wide range of quality covers, each presented in Steve’s own inimitable style.
Appearing Saturday 18th
Market Place – 12.00 & 16:00
Palace Courtyard – 14:00
Appearing Sunday 19th
Market Place – 10.00 & 11:30
Palace Courtyard – 13:30
Ferryhill Town Band
Ferryhill Town Band was formed by the miners of the Mainsforth Colliery in 1909. Under the baton of conductor Mareika Gray, the band concluded their remarkable 2025 contest season with a fantastic 4th place finish at the National Brass Band Championships of Great Britain in Cheltenham. The result marks the band’s highest-ever placement.
Appearing Sunday 19th
Market Place – 10.30 / 12:30 / 14:30
Rock Choir
We’re delighted to welcome back the stunning vocal arrangements of the North East’s biggest choir. Rock Choir is described as the world’s largest contemporary choir, holding three Guinness World Records – ‘biggest hit act in the UK’, ‘largest musical act to release an album’ and ‘largest song and dance routine held at multiple locations’.
Appearing Sunday 19th
Palace Courtyard – 10.30 & 12:30
Lino print postcards
Join the artists from Daisy Arts and try your hand at lino printing! Using readymade lino cuts – food themed of course, you can print your own postcard to keep or send to friends and family. No experience required. Just pop by, get inky, and take home your postcard.
Drop-in activities in the Palace Courtyard available Saturday 18th and Sunday 19th.
Earthship
Earthship, by artist Mick Stephenson, is a giant artwork with a big idea: sending a message from Bishop Auckland into deep space. Part of the Light Years programme, the Earthship celebrates curiosity, hope, ambition and our shared sense of wonder about the universe.
Families and visitors of all ages are invited to write a message to space, which will become part of the artwork itself. In 2026, these messages will be digitised and fired into space using new laser technology, working with scientists at SPARC (Durham Space Research Centre) … with the destination in space chosen by the public.
Drop-in activities in the Palace Courtyard available Saturday 18th and Sunday 19th.
Memory of a Journey
Memory of a Journey is a mass participation project that began last year as part of the celebrations to mark the bicentenary of the Stockton & Darlington Railway. Drop by and decorate a peg doll inspired by the memory of your favourite journey.
Also on display is a sample of the 10,000 plus peg dolls that will go on show at Durham Town Hall over the May Half-term holiday.
Drop-in activities in the Palace Courtyard available Saturday 18th and Sunday 19th.
