146 Best Performing Arts Venues in England

East Anglia's most important arts festival, and one of the best known in Britain, is held for two weeks in June in the small village of Snape, 5 miles west of Aldeburgh. Founded by Benjamin Britten, the festival concentrates on music but includes exhibitions, poetry readings, and lectures. A handful of events are aimed specifically at children.

Huge investment culminated in the 2023 opening of the world-class Aviva Studios cultural center. The home of Factory International, the riverside complex hosts a constantly evolving program of arts, dance, theater, film, and multimedia events that has cemented Manchester's status as a leading cultural destination.

Opened in 1982, The Barbican is an enormous brutalist concrete maze that Londoners either love or hate—but its importance to the cultural life of the capital is beyond dispute. At the largest performing arts center in Europe, you could listen to Elgar, see 1960s photography, and catch German animation with live accompaniment, all in one day. The main concert hall, known for its acoustics, is most famous as the home of the London Symphony Orchestra. The Barbican is also a frequent host to the BBC Symphony Orchestra. Architecture tours take place several times a week.

Held over two weeks in May, the Bath Festival is a multi-arts celebration of literature and music in and around the city. Events include classical, jazz, and world-music concerts, dance performances, literary talks, and exhibitions, many in the Assembly Rooms and Bath Abbey.

With the best repertory programming in London, these four cinemas run by the British Film Institute are in effect a national film center. More than 1,000 titles are screened each year, with art-house and foreign-language new releases, restored classics and silents, experimental and niche interest works, and short films favored over recent Hollywood blockbusters. The center also has a gallery, bookshop, library, and a "mediatheque" where visitors can watch film and television from the National Archive for free (closed Monday). The Riverfront Bar and Kitchen offers dining with views, while the BFI Bar is informal and buzzy and the BFI Café offers coffee and light snacks. This is one of the venues for the BFI London Film Festival, though throughout the year there are minifestivals, seminars, and guest speakers.

Set within an ultramodern building next to the staggering contemporary design of Birmingham’s library, the revered Birmingham Repertory Theatre is one of England’s oldest (founded in 1913) and most esteemed theater companies. All about the live performance, it’s equally at home performing modern or classical works.

This is the home of the distinguished City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra and a venue for jazz, pop, and classical concerts. The centerpiece of the revamped Centenary Square has a shoebox-shape, 6,000-pipe organ, and impeccable acoustics; it's easily one of the finest concert halls in England.

The city center's oldest building is now a creative hub encompassing contemporary visual arts, live art, literature, music, and dance, along with a café and bistro.

A contemporary complex in a converted brewery, Brewery Arts includes a gallery, theater, cinemas, and workshop spaces. Some things are free; it's best to check online and buy tickets in advance if needed. The Brewery Arts Bar & Restaurant on-site serves up a tasty selection of pizzas and hearty mains, as well as craft beers and wine. Many film screenings, speakers, and events during November's popular four-day Kendal Mountain Festival ( kendalmountainfestival.com), a celebration of adventure, nature, and culture, take place here.

One of the largest fringe festivals in the world—and second only to the Edinburgh Fringe in the United Kingdom—this four-week-long arts extravaganza sees hundreds of stand-up, sketch comedy, music, dance, and circus acts descend on the city every May.

Spread over four days in late July or early August at Cherry Hinton Hall, the Cambridge Folk Festival attracts major international folk singers and groups.

The 10-day Literature Festival in October brings world-renowned authors, actors, and critics to Cheltenham for hundreds of readings, lectures, and other events.

The beautifully restored Corn Exchange presents classical and rock concerts, stand-up comedy, musicals, opera, and ballet.

A landmark on the Notting Hill skyline since 1898, the Coronet has undergone many transformations over the years: from theater to cinema to Pentecostal church to the place where Hugh Grant took Julia Roberts on a date in the rom-com Notting Hill. Today, it's a performing arts venue with a decidedly international and eclectic program of theater, dance, poetry, and music (it's also a host venue for the London Jazz Festival). Be sure to visit the theater bar, the most sumptuous and atmospheric of its kind in the city.

Opened in 1959 and now a Soho institution, this three-screen independent cinema runs a vibrant program of first-run arthouse and mainstream films, along with a highly engaging calendar of director talks, Q&As, film festival events, and other offerings. The first-floor mezzanine bar is great for a quiet drink, even when Soho's Shaftesbury Avenue is crowded with people. There are other equally historic and wonderful Curzon cinemas in Mayfair, Bloomsbury, and Victoria.

In the historic former Mayfield railway station, with a backdrop that showcases the city's industrial past, this vast venue has a lively roster of arts, music, industry, culture, and community events. Its atmospheric spaces include the old concourse and the rooftop, open-air platform, and the place is dotted with street food vendors.

Hollywood stars often enjoy performing at this not-for-profit theater in diverse and daring new works, bold interpretations of the classics, and small-scale musicals. Heavy-hitters like Nicole Kidman, Gwyneth Paltrow, and Ewan McGregor have all graced the Donmar stage.

A glamorous contemporary art fair, Frieze London brings the crème de la crème of the international art world to London each October. Its sister show, Frieze Masters, is a 15-minute walk across Regent's Park and focuses on art from the ancient world through the late 20th century. For the two events combined, hundreds of galleries exhibiting thousands of artworks—everything from old masters to Rachel Whiteread—fill two huge pop-up spaces in the park. The food and drink available on-site are pricey but excellent, and there's a compelling program of artist and curator talks. Catch the free Frieze Sculpture Park in Regent's Park between July and October.

Nestled beneath the Downs, 2½ miles east of Lewes, this world-famous opera house combines first-class productions, a state-of-the-art auditorium, and a beautiful setting. Tickets are very expensive (the cheapest start at around £100, though for many productions it's twice that), and you have to book months in advance. But it's worth every penny to aficionados, who traditionally wear evening dress and bring a hamper to picnic on the grounds. The main season runs from mid-May to the end of August.  Save money by booking standing-room tickets. Look out for special nights when adults under 30 pay just £30.

An architectural extravaganza of Edwardian style, this baroque-style theater has a magnificent 2,350-seat auditorium and a rooftop glass dome with a bar and great views. As one of the city's most venerable venues, the Coliseum functions mainly as the home of the English National Opera, which produces innovative opera, sung in English, for lower prices than the nearby Royal Opera House. In recent years the company also has presented musicals, sometimes featuring star opera singers. During opera's off-season (including summertime and during winter holidays), the house hosts the English National Ballet and other troupes. Guided tours offering fascinating insights into the architecture and history of the building take place on selected dates at 11 am.

Held in the grounds of Ludlow Castle, this annual celebration of local produce from independent growers and small-scale suppliers along the border of England and Wales is held over three days each September and features more than 180 stalls, many of which offer free tastings.

The wildly eclectic and very cool Meltdown generally takes place in June at the Southbank Centre. It's curated by a different big-name artist each year (past curators have included the likes of Yoko Ono, Patti Smith, Elvis Costello, and Grace Jones), so you never have any idea what to expect until the program comes out.

When this complex designed by Sir Denys Lasdun opened in 1976, Londoners were slow to warm up to the low-rise brutalist block, with King Charles III once describing it as "a clever way of building a nuclear power station in the middle of London without anyone objecting." But whatever you think of the outside, the inside offers generally superb theatrical experiences at (relatively) friendly prices—several of which (like War Horse or One Man, Two Guvnors) have gone on to become long-running Broadway hits. Interspersed with the three theaters—the 1,150-seat Olivier, the 890-seat Lyttelton, and the 450-seat Dorfman—is a multilayered foyer with exhibitions, bars, restaurants, and free entertainment. Musicals, classics, and plays are performed by top-flight professionals, often including Britain's most well-known names, whom you can sometimes catch giving foyer talks as well. Seventy-five-minute backstage tours incorporating prop-making and scene-painting workshops as well as the architecture of the building are offered on weekdays at 5 pm and Saturday at noon. There are £10 Friday Rush tickets for some performances.

In 2015, Matthew Warchus, the director behind Matilda the Musical, took over as artistic director of this venerable venue, where stage legends like Maggie Smith, Vivien Leigh, Peter O'Toole, Richard Burton, and Judi Dench once trod the boards. Today, you'll still find some of the best shows in town here—both new work and revivals of modern classics—some featuring contemporary stars like Andrew Scott and Claire Foy.

The festival takes place during the last week of March at Christ Church College, the Sheldonian, and other university venues. Leading authors come to give lectures and interviews, and there's plenty to entertain children.

This quirky two-screen repertory film theater just north of Leicester Square and on the lower reaches of Chinatown offers you a chance to catch up with indie arthouse films, documentaries, and even classic blockbusters that you may have missed. A second screen upstairs shows newer movies at more typical West End prices. With 300 velvet seats, this is where London's "Singalong Screenings" took off; come in character and sing along to the likes of The Sound of Music, Grease, Dirty Dancing, The Rocky Horror Picture Show, The Greatest Showman, and other cult singalong classics.

Hosted predominantly in the epic Royal Albert Hall, The BBC Proms is an eight-week-long festival of classical concerts that takes place every summer. More than 100 years old, the festival is considered an institution, but the lineup doesn't shy away from embracing the new and quirky aspects of classical music. Expect to find the likes of children's concerts, classic film scores, and avant-garde African salsa on the bill. Standing tickets of £8.50 are available for most performances.

Opened in 1871, this splendid iron-and-glass-domed auditorium hosts everything from R&B, pop, and classical headliners to Cirque du Soleil, ballet, and RuPaul's Drag Race, but it is best known for the annual July–September BBC Promenade Concerts. Bargain-price standing-room (or promenading or sitting-on-the-floor) tickets for "the Proms" are sold on the night of the concert. The circular 5,272-seat auditorium has a terra-cotta exterior surmounted by an 800-foot-long mosaic frieze depicting figures engaged in advancing the arts and sciences. The hall is open most days for daytime guided tours and Tuesday through Sunday for afternoon tea.