Thornbury Arts Festival: Fair Cop Alfie Moore
Cossham Hall, Thornbury
Top comedian Alfie Moore will launch this year’s Thornbury Arts Festival and help celebrate the re-opening of The Armstrong performance and community venue.
The policeman turned stand-up comic will appear in the renovated Cossham Hall, within The Armstrong, on Friday, April 10, making a welcome return to the festival after his sell-out show in 2023.
Alfie has a big following due to his hit BBC Radio 4 series It’s a Fair Cop and tickets for his show are expected to be in high demand.
Top comedian Alfie Moore will launch this year’s Thornbury Arts Festival and help celebrate the re-opening of The Armstrong performance and community venue.
Photo courtesy of Tony Briggs
The policeman turned stand-up comic will appear in the renovated Cossham Hall, within The Armstrong, on Friday, April 10, making a welcome return to the festival after his sell-out show in 2023.
Alfie has a big following due to his hit BBC Radio 4 series It’s a Fair Cop and tickets for his show are expected to be in high demand.
The 2026 arts festival has been brought forward by five months so it can be among the first events in the previously named Armstrong Hall complex, which closed in 2020 but is being revived thanks to a major campaign.
Volunteers behind the festival only wrapped up their 2025 event last October but leapt at the chance to return to their traditional “home” and swiftly devised a programme of four evening shows, a guided town walk and a science spectacular for families.
The schedule includes Cardiff Cotswold Opera, a performer-led charity dedicated to opening the world of opera to new and less traditional audiences. It will bring the concert Murder at the Opera - an audience favourite of popular opera, musical theatre and fun - to town on Saturday, April 11.
With the festival running during the school holidays, organisers asked Mark Thompson to bring his Spectacular Science Show to Thornbury on the afternoon of Friday, April 17.
Designed for both children and adults, it won the Best Kids’ Show accolade at the Edinburgh Fringe and aims to show that science is not boring.
Mark explores the strange and magical properties of matter, which could include exploding elephants’ toothpaste, vortex-generating dustbins and even howling jelly babies.
Later that day, audiences can experience National Theatre Live, where a play performed on stage in front of a theatre audience is filmed and screened at venues around the globe.
Bringing the evening performances to a close on Saturday, April 18, will be The Churchfitters folk band and their high energy show. As well as “normal” instruments, they also play others created from such items as saucepans, saws and scrap metal.
The final event will be a guided walk led by local historian Meg Wise on the morning of Sunday, April 19.
Linked to the re-opening of the Cossham Hall, the two-hour walk will feature places associated with the life of Handel Cossham.
Entitled Thornbury’s Man of Substance, Meg’s walk will reveal why he gave the Cossham Hall to the town and how the Armstrong Hall came about.
The website www.thornburyartsfestival.org.uk with full details of events and ticket information is due to go live before the end of February.
New helpers are needed to ensure Thornbury’s long-running arts festival continues to thrive.
Live music, comedy and drama has entertained audiences in the town and surrounding area for more than 50 years, together with a wide range of guest speakers.
Comedian Alfie Moore, poet Pam Ayres, former ITN political editor John Sargeant, the BBC’s former chief news correspondent Kate Adie and the Reduced Shakespeare Company are just some of those who have been brought to Thornbury by the team running the annual festival.
All the organisers are volunteers who use their spare time to find acts, liaise with them or their agents, book venues, arrange publicity and, at the events, look after the performers and welcome audiences.
They also distribute flyers around Thornbury and neighbouring towns and villages, put up banners, run the event bars and even put out chairs at venues if necessary.
But the team involved is small and with some committee members retiring, or already retired, there is a need to replace them.
At least four more people are required, including someone to become treasurer. Whoever takes on that particular role does not have to be a qualified accountant, just someone who knows their way around a spreadsheet and can sort out what money comes in and goes out.
Anyone of any age with enthusiasm for the performing arts is welcome to become involved. Meetings are usually held once a month but more often as each festival approaches.
As well as the main festival, there are also other events which come under its umbrella - the Thornbury Eisteddfod for young performers, the Severn Vale Art Trail and a production by the Bristol Old Vic Theatre School for local primary school children.
Anyone interested should email for more information.
Since the 1980s Thornbury Eisteddfod, as part of Thornbury Arts Festival, has provided a platform for young performers who enjoy, drama, singing and playing musical instruments.
This is a very inclusive festival, designed to encourage young people of all abilities.
The aim of the Eisteddfod is to make taking part enjoyable and to be a celebration of the great range of talent in the local area.
The Eisteddfod is open to all young people aged from 4 to 21 and the disciplines cover Speech and Drama, Vocals including Choirs, and Instrumentals.
Click here to find out more and see the latest syllabus, or email Kate Phillipson-Masters: .
The Severn Vale Art Trail represents the visual side of Thornbury Arts Festival.
The trail has become an annual event running over the early May Bank Holiday.
The trail consists of a number of group exhibitions, together with many individual artists, displaying their work in and around Thornbury and neighbouring towns and villages in Gloucestershire and South Gloucestershire.
Enjoy an afternoon, day or the whole weekend exploring the trail from Stinchcombe down to Alveston, discovering talented local artists displaying their art in their own studios or shared venues.
The diverse range of work includes: paintings, photography, ceramics, textiles, jewellery, glass art, mosaics and much more!
Many of the venues have refreshments for sale or are located close to local coffee shops, and include interesting churches, working studios and community buildings.
This is a great opportunity to support local artists and purchase original artwork and gifts, or simply to enjoy an inspiring day out!
For details of all the artists and venues (including accessibility, directions and opening hours), and to view the trail map, please visit www.severnvalearttrail.org or pick up one the printed trail guides from local shops and cafes.
Follow us on Instagram and Facebook @severnvalearttrail for all the latest updates.
The Arts Festival came into being in 1969 with varied programmes of events covering music, drama, film and comedy, as well as visual arts.
Signatures in the archive album range from an astronaut, an explorer, radio and television personalities and actors, writers and scientists as well as singers and musicians.
The programme also includes lunchtime talks and entertainment and a walk.
As one of the longest running arts festivals in the country, the Thornbury event is run entirely by volunteers and boasts a mix of daytime and evening events to appeal to as wide an audience as possible.
More details are available on the Arts Festival website www.thornburyartsfestival.org.uk - and also the facebook page.
