It’s the 10th Anniversary of Bakewell Arts Festival and it’s been a rich, varied, inspiring, frequently difficult and entirely memorable 10 years. Appropriately, this year’s programme is without doubt the best yet and is a decisive one in the Festival’s history and in its future.

An extensive contemporary music programme of over 20 bands/performers includes the 10th Anniversary BAF Concert in the grounds of Thornbridge Hall with Australian superstar Jon Stevens, the 'Live on the Lorry' open-air gig in the centre of Bakewell with some of the best local bands (with Mystery Boulevard Band, Smiling Ivy, Corkstone, Kerry Fernandez Band, Left Hand Drive and more), the return of the Mersey Beatles, an afternoon of Folk in the Gardens in the delightful setting of Riverside Gardens, a jazz concert and gourmet dinner with saxophonist Alan Barnes, and the now traditional nightly shenanigans of the BAF Sessions/Unplugged offering an eclectic mix from blues to experimental.

The Festival's strong focus on theatre continues this year with Bakewell Youth Theatre's production of Chess, an outdoor production of A Midsummer Night's Dream by Verano Theatre Company, local heroes The Peacock Players presenting Cards, Cups and Crystal Ball, fringe theatre with Liars and Demises, Max Howard's In Search of the New, and an evening in the company of West-End star and local boy made good Tom Pearce.

Spoken-word/literary events make a significant impact with iconic folk singer Shirley Collin's recollections of her travels through the US with musicologist Alan Lomax in America Over the Water, Poetry in the Garden with Poet Laureate of the Peak Ann Atkinson, No Uncommon Sight – a lecture by Michael Howard on the role of landscape in art and literature, and The Write-Off and Creative Writing Sessions for all you budding authors.

Other highlights include, amongst other, a major exhibition of Stations of the Cross – a series of large canvas paintings/drawing by Ghislaine Howard, a behind-the-scenes visit to one of the nation's best-kept secrets in Haddon Hall ... Location, Location, Location, the Sir Arthur Sullivan Society presenting favourite songs from the operettas and a complete performance of Trial by Jury in An Evening of Gilbert and Sullivan, an outdoor concert by Bakewell Silver Band and a Dance Summer School.

Click on the Diary pages for an overview of the Festival or use the drop-down menu above more detailed information about each day's events.