Festival Fringe Live
Although our focus is on creative art, Melbourne Festival’s concerts & performances have always been an important part of the Festival.
We are excited to be back in 2025 with live performances.
Tickets are available from the links on this page.
WHISPERS FROM THE WOODS – BOOK LAUNCH
Friday 5th September, 5.30-7.30 pm
Creative Melbourne Gallery, Church Street, Melbourne, DE73 8EJ
No ticket required!
In 2021/22, Arts Melbourne collaborated with Poet Dan Webber on a poetry and nature project, documenting the experiences of young people from Melbourne, South Derbyshire, and Derby during the COVID-19 pandemic. The project aimed to write a community poem celebrating the sights and sounds of being outdoors during lockdown. The original project was sponsored by a National Forest Arts Grant, and in 2024, Dan Webber received a University of Derby Civic Grant to Whispers from the Woods as a book.
We would like to invite you to the book launch, offering the opportunity to learn more.
The collection in the book contains poetry written as part of the project by young ambassadors and poet Dan Webber, as well as creative writing prompts, wellbeing exercises, maps of The National Forest and everything you need to explore nature and find your own Whispers from the Woods.
FESTIVAL FUNHOUSE COMEDY CLUB
Friday 12th September 7.00 for 8 pm
Melbourne Sporting Partnership, Cockshut Lane, Melbourne DE73 8DG
It has become a tradition that Melbourne Festival launches with our Festival Funhouse Comedy Club! Topping the bill is Irish comedian and actor Paddy Lennox, a naturally funny man that oozes charm. With his laugh-a-minute gags his gentle Irish lilt belies a mischievous sense of humour, leaving his audience wishing for more.
Opening the night is award-winning musical comedian and songwriter Friz Frizzle known for his fast-paced, crowd-interactive performances, individual anecdotes and speedily delivered song parodies on piano and guitar.
Completing the line-up is co-star is Barry Dodds. His mix of surprisingly uncanny and irrepressibly cheeky material never fails to fascinate them. Compere for the night will be the cheeky and friendly Stevie Gray with his boundless energy and mix of news and comedy.
Tickets £14 https://wegottickets.com/event/669649 or 07506 303247
Licensed bar available.
ISLAND SPIRIT
Saturday 13th September 6.30 for 7pm
Thomas Cook Memorial Hall, High Street, Melbourne DE73 8CQ
A young Polish woman returns to Scotland to trace her roots, discovering the story of her mother, and the father she never knew. This Edinburgh Fringe-style performance offers original songs from the musical, written & performed by Beyond the Blue a Derby-based songwriting duo made up of vocalist Nina Blaszczyk and Phil Baggaley on guitar. Nina brings a fresh, rich, emotive voice to the duo, while Phil, a seasoned musician, crafts their songs’ melodic backbone.
Tickets £10 from https://www.ticketsource.co.uk/beyondtheblue
THE DERBY GAME
A History of Local Rivalries by IAN COLLIS
Wednesday 17th September 7 – 8.30 pm
Melbourne Library, High Street, Melbourne DE73 8GF
An illustrated talk on the history of Britain’s most notorious football game.
“Oh, ye Gods, what a riot!” Drawing on eyewitness reports, Ian Collis’s The Derby Game charts the history of Britain’s rowdiest football game, once played every Shrove Tuesday in the streets of Derby. Discover the crazy game that has ever since lent the city’s name to all clashes between local sporting rivalries.
Tickets – a cash donation on the day.
Please email melbourne.library@derbyshire.gov.uk
or call 01629 533363 to reserve a seat
'Poetry Day' at Melbourne Festival
Saturday 20th September 10am – 12.30pm
Melbourne Library, High Street, Melbourne DE73 8GF
We are delighted to announce that Melbourne Library will be hosting a rather special event at Melbourne Festival to encourage and promote a better appreciation and enjoyment of contemporary poetry.
The host and 'Poet-in-Residence' for the day will be the experienced and widely acclaimed Bert Flitcroft. This is an informal and relaxed event.
Between 10 am and 12.30 pm Bert will give short readings on the hour of 3 or 4 poems from his latest collection 'SEEING THE LIGHT' and chat informally about them. In between, members of the public are invited to drop in at any time, relax, chat, and ask questions.
The event should appeal to any existing writing and reading groups who may wish to discuss/workshop with our resident poet, but he will also welcome members of the public who would like to just pop in and chat informally about writing …. poetry and prose…. starting to write…. how to improve their writing…. why he writes poetry….and so on.
The Friends of Melbourne Parish Church present
“STARS OF THE FUTURE” with GRAHAM OPPENHEIMER &
Thursday 25 September, 7 for 7.30 pm
Melbourne Parish Church, Church Square, DE73 8JH
An exciting musical journey from an intimate Mozart duo to some of the most dramatic music of Beethoven and ending in the lush full sound of a Tchaikovsky romantic masterpiece, played by outstanding young international musicians.
Mozart Duo in G major for Violin & Viola k 423
Beethoven String Quartet in C minor op 18 no 4
Tchaikovsky String Sextet “Souvenir de Florence”
Ticket price: £15 (£10 for under 18s) https://wegottickets.com/event/659691
Licensed bar available.
Kindly sponsored by the East Midlands Airport Community Fund
MAGICAL MAYHEM MAGIC SHOW
Friday 26th September, 5-11 am & 5-6 pm
Melbourne Parish Church, Church Square, DE73 8JH
This show is pure magic - and funny too!
Come with your family and enjoy this brilliant entertainment. You won't believe your eyes!
Tickets: Children £4. Adults free, warden@melbourneparishchurch.co.uk or 07752 686 000
CIRCUS SKILLS WORKSHOP
Friday 26th September, For 8-18’s, 6.30 -7.30 pm
Whizz around the building on a unicycle training machine or learn to juggle, starting with colourful scarves. Something for all levels of skill and fun for all!
Tickets: Children £4. Adults free, warden@melbourneparishchurch.co.uk or 07752 686 000
CRIMINAL MINDS - Meet Three Crime Fiction Writers
Friday 26th September 6.30 for 7 pm
Melbourne Sporting Partnership, Cockshut Lane, Melbourne DE73 8DG
Jane Bettany is the author of the DI Isabel Blood crime novels, set in the fictional Derbyshire town of Bainbridge, and a cosy crime series featuring amateur sleuth Violet Brewster, which is also set in Derbyshire. Jane's debut novel, In Cold Blood, won the 2019 Gransnet and HQ writing competition.
Tom Mead is a Derbyshire mystery writer and aficionado of Golden Age Crime Fiction. His debut novel, Death and the Conjurer, was an international bestseller. Its sequel, The Murder Wheel, and his third Joseph Spector mystery, Cabaret Macabre, were also highly praised. The fourth book in the series, The House at Devil’s Neck, was released in August.
Mark Eklid was an award-winning regional newspaper sports journalist before switching from cricket to crime thrillers. The 23-Day Girlfriend, self-published in June 2024, is his sixth novel. His first was Sunbeam in 2019, followed by Family Business and Catalyst. The Murder of Miss Perfect and Blood on Shakespeare’s Typewriter were published through Spellbound Books.
Tickets in advance £5 from 07506 303247.
Book Group Members Free, but please reserve a place.
Licensed bar available.
A CHOIR’D TASTE’ AUTUMN CONCERT
Friday 3rd & Saturday 4th October
Melbourne Assembly Rooms, High Street, Melbourne DE73 8GF
Another fantastic performance by our fantastic local mixed voice choir.
A Choir’d Taste was formed in 2009 at the suggestion of a small group of singing enthusiasts following a choral workshop as part of Melbourne Festival.
They are a mixed choir of approximately sixty members, led by Musical Director Paul Marshall. They have a wide repertoire that is eclectic and constantly growing!
Tickets £12 from Choir Members
Licensed bar available.
ST MICHAELS PLAYERS present
900 YEARS OF HYSTERICAL HISTORY
Friday 17th and Saturday 18th October*
Melbourne Assembly Rooms, High Street, Melbourne DE73 8GF
St Michael's Players return to stage and screen this autumn in support of the Melbourne Parish Church 900-year anniversary celebrations. The show will be a humorous and highly irreverent look back at life over the last 900 years (and beyond) in Melbourne.
Tickets £14 from Wegottickets:
FRIDAY https://wegottickets.com/event/668001 SATURDAY https://wegottickets.com/event/668002
Or 07432 246 264
Licensed bar available.
The Friends of Melbourne Parish Church present
MINIMA present THE PHANTOM OF THE OPERA
Thursday 6 November, 7 for 7.30 pm*
Melbourne Parish Church, Church Square, DE73 8JH
Minima present their electrifying original score for the 1925 classic The Phantom of the Opera, capturing the horror, pathos, romance and humour of the story. Drums, bass, guitar and cello strike up a thrilling relationship with the film, following the Phantom down into his subterranean nightmare world.
Ticket price: £15 (£10 for under 18s) https://wegottickets.com/event/657355
Licensed bar available
The Friends of Melbourne Parish Church present
A JAZZ CHRISTMAS CAROL with THE ALAN BARNES OCTET
Friday 5th December. 7 for 7.30 pm*
Melbourne Parish Church, Church Square, DE73 8JH
Like the Dickens classic itself, Alan Barnes’s “Christmas Carol” has something for everyone. A family night out that is also a treat for the jazz connoisseur; it will delight anyone who loves music, literature – or just Christmas! Readings from the original Dickens tell the story, and after each scene eight virtuoso musicians bring the characters and scenes to life, switching audiences from hilarity to pathos with a skill that would have done credit to Dickens himself!
Tickets: £15 (£10 under 18s)
https://wegottickets.com/event/657732
Licensed bar available
Kindly sponsored by Alan Staley Building Contractors Ltd
*Paper Tickets are available from Creative Melbourne Gallery for some performances.
We regret that we cannot offer refunds unless in exceptional circumstances.