Oxford Festival of the Arts

Oxford Festival of the Arts is a fortnight of events across the city, which takes place each summer from the third week of June onwards.

It attracts nationally and internationally renowned performers and artists, as well as exciting newcomers and wonderful home-grown talent to the festival. They commission new work and through their many cultural partnerships they collaborate on innovative projects and make use of the buildings, open spaces and performance venues that the beautiful city of Oxford has to offer.

They curate a broad programme of performances, events and experiences embracing music; classical, contemporary and new (they are proud to have presented numerous world premieres across the years), theatre, visual art, film, dance, literature, workshops, talks, comedy and more.

They celebrate Oxford’s diverse communities and offer something for everyone, whatever their age, background or artistic experience.

Many famous names have graced the OFA stages: Sir Sam Mendes, Ronnie Scott’s Big Band, Joseph Calleja, Nish Kumar, Professor Suzannah Lipscomb, Mahan Esfahani, Dame Sarah Connelly, Dr Janina Ramirez, ORA Singers, Prue Leith, Sophie von Otter, Marcus Brigstock, Dame Darcey Bussell and many many more.

The two weeks of the Festival are the pinnacle of their activities, their partnership activities run throughout the year involving hundreds of children from local primary schools and community groups. Much of their work is showcased during the Festival.

The Oxford Festival of the Arts was founded by Magdalen College School and the school remains the lead sponsor. Its beautiful grounds are the backdrop to many festival events.