Derbyshire Makes Festival 2026
A free festival across Derbyshire, celebrating making in all its forms.
April to May 2027
Derbyshire Makes Festival returns in 2027, bringing creativity, making and celebration to towns and communities across the county.
Following a fantastic second year, the festival will once again bring together artists, makers, communities and local partners for six distinctive hub festivals, each shaped by the stories, heritage and creativity of its place.
Expect town centres, heritage sites and community spaces to come alive with opportunities to discover, make, share and celebrate. From hands-on workshops and heritage crafts to contemporary art, performances, exhibitions and much more.
Save the dates for Derbyshire Makes Festival 2027:
• Glossop – Saturday 3 April
• Bolsover – Saturday 10 April
• Swadlincote – Saturday 17 April
• Heanor – Saturday 24 April
• Cromford – Saturday 1 & Sunday 2 May
• Chesterfield – Saturday 8 May
Each festival will have its own programme, created with local partners, artists and communities, bringing together six unique celebrations as part of one countywide festival.
More details and the 2027 programme will be announced soon.
2026 Festival highlights
Spring 2026 saw Derbyshire Makes Festival return for its second year, bringing 2 months of creativity, making and celebration to communities across the county.
At the heart of the Festival were six distinctive hub days in Cromford, Chesterfield, Swadlincote, Heanor, Glossop and Bolsover, transforming town centres, heritage sites and community spaces through workshops, exhibitions, performances, demonstrations and hands-on making.
Each Festival was shaped by its place, bringing together local artists, makers, organisations and communities to celebrate Derbyshire’s creativity and heritage – from textiles, pottery and traditional crafts to music, storytelling, contemporary art and immersive experiences.
Four showcase performances also travelled across the Festival. Audiences encountered the spectacular Giant Wheel Parade by Autin Dance Theatre, the inventive mechanical mayhem of Matt Pang’s Thingamabob Show, stepped inside Derbyshire’s creative landscape through John Whall’s MakeLAND VR experience, and gathered in Val and Friends Community Living Room, created by Maison Foo in collaboration with Make/Shift and Listening Shelf Audio.
Together with activity happening across the wider Derbyshire Makes programme, the Festival formed part of a year that saw more than 79,000 people engage with Derbyshire Makes, with more than 14,000 actively taking part in creative experiences.
It also created opportunities for Derbyshire’s creative sector, with 243 creative practitioners employed and 87 creative and cultural businesses supported across the programme.
From trying something new and discovering local makers to seeing familiar places transformed through creativity, the 2026 Festival demonstrated the many different ways making can bring people and places together.
2025 Festival highlights
Derbyshire Makes Festival unfolded across six local Hubs over five weeks from Friday 28 March to Sunday 27 April 2025. In Chesterfield, Heanor, Cromford, Glossop, Bolsover and Swadlincote, there were artist talks, craft-based demonstrations and making opportunities, as well as exhibitions, performances and more.
Glossop’s central square was transformed into a giant playground, Heanor encouraged neighbours to share their knowledge in the Big Community Skills Swap in Heanor. Each Hub location was programmed by local cultural partners, with activities informed by the stories and history unique to the area. And threading its way between these locations was the mobile workshop and gallery The Makory.
