Why We Love Swanage
and how we try to support the town.
What’s so special about Swanage? It’s a great setting for one of Dorset’s largest folk festivals.
All this beauty, and the festival, in walking distance.
Stunning seaside setting
What’s not to love about a beautiful seaside town, superb sunsets and dramatic moonrises over the bay? We’ve even had crowds stop to watch red moons rising over the sea during the festival.
Independent shops
We’re blessed with more independent shops than most towns — walk around and see for yourself. We’re all part of a great Swanage community.
Historic Victorian Swanage
Set in a town that has a lovely historic character, much of it set by the Victorians – the Steam railway, the pier, can you find the clocktower that was once on London Bridge?
Here’s how we try to return the favour and play our part.
2025: £10,000 donated to local charities through the festival.
We are a volunteer-run non-profit organisation.
2025: 42 of the festival’s 55 musical acts were free to watch.
2025: 3,880 reusable beer cups helped avoid
throwing away thousands of single-use plastic cups.
Young musicans are the future of folk, so we always allocate stage time to them,
specially local ones.
2025: To help reduce plastic and packaging waste,
we chose to stop selling cans of drinking water and provide free drinking water in our bar instead.
2025: To help entertain children and support local shops, we started the annual Gnome Hunt.
Helping Swanage stay lively after the summer holidays,
that’s why the festival is in early September.
Young musicians are the future of folk, so we’re very proud to support Purbeck Youth Music.
Supporting local businesses by attracting around 5,000 visitors over the festival weekend.
To support local businesses and help extend the tourist season,
the festival is always held in the second weekend after the school holidays.
To help keep emissions lower, we use mains electricity only
and don’t use diesel generators, unlike many festivals.
To help keep our carbon footprint as low as possible,
we avoid single-use plastic and use reusable cups throughout the festival bar.
Even our cable ties are reused!
Even our vinyl banners are reused annually, rather than disposing of them as many events do.
2024: £4,500 donated to local charities through the festival.
We are a volunteer-run non-profit organisation.
When it's all done
We keep it clean throughout the weekend, then one final collection after it’s all taken down.
When it's all done
We love leaving the field cleaner than when we arrived, even if the grass wants a day to rest.
Giving money to local charities
Each year we celebrate what we were able to give back to the community. Click for details of our 2026 celebration day.