Discover the remarkable history of the Three Choirs Festival, the world’s oldest music festival, founded in Gloucester in 1715.

Here, giants such as Ralph Vaughan Williams premiered Fantasia on a Theme of Thomas Tallis in 1910 before a packed cathedral nave that included Edward Elgar, while young Ivor Gurney and Herbert Howells looked on.

From the first BBC live broadcasts in 1925 to moments of wartime uncertainty, 2026 Artistic Director Adrian Partington, archivist Simon Carpenter and Chief Executive David Francis reveal triumph, turbulence and tenacity across three centuries of Festivals in Gloucester.

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Historian and broadcaster Janina Ramirez, author of Legenda, joins David Musgrove of BBC HistoryExtra for a lively and personal conversation.

With warmth and wit, Janina explores what the past has taught her; not neat answers, but glimmers of resilience, compassion and optimism. She reveals how history’s stories can steady us, surprise us and occasionally make us laugh along the way.

In partnership with History Extra

Please Note: No booking needed for this free event.

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£20 including buffet lunch

Step into Shakespeare’s world through taste. Leading food historian Sam Bilton has worked with Shakespeare’s Globe Theatre to discover what the Bard really ate and the dishes, from banquet pies to sweet tarts, that graced his plays.

Join her to savour history yourself at our delicious Shakespearean lunch which may include: salmon pasties, beef chewits, Elizabethan sticky gingerbread and Tudor shortbread!

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£12

Award-winning third-generation baker David Wright traces the story of bread from the first cultivated grains of the Fertile Crescent in c.8000 BC to the rise of industrial sliced loaves in the 1960s and today’s sourdough revival.

What role did bread play in ancient Egypt and Rome, the Great Fire of London, the Peterloo Massacre or conflicts today in Ukraine and Gaza? And what does the future hold for the humble loaf?

The talk is followed by an artisan bread and pastry tasting in the scriptorium from 3:30 – 4 pm.

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Join prize-winning historian Tharik Hussain for a revelatory journey across a continent as he uncovers Islam’s deep European roots, from the splendour of Spain’s Alhambra to Cyprus’ forgotten Sufi temples and the cultural brilliance of Muslim Spain.

Far from a sideshow, Muslim civilisation helped shape Europe’s art, science and medicine for over a millennium and in his beautifully illustrated talk he ‘uncovers a world of which few are fully aware.’ (Colin Thubron)

“This is a book I’ve been longing for someone to write and Hussain is the man to write it.”  – William Dalrymple

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Before King Alfred and the dream of a united Anglo-Saxon kingdom, there was Offa.

Best remembered as the builder of Offa’s Dyke, he was far more than a frontier king. Ruling Mercia from 757 to 796, Offa dominated southern Britain, strengthened his realm and reshaped kingship itself.

In a compelling new talk, top Cambridge historian Rory Naismith reveals an ambitious, image-conscious ruler who changed the course of English history.

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Christopher de Hamel, one of the world’s best-known manuscript lovers, invites us into the candlelit world of the Book of Kells, the St
Cuthbert Gospel and Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales, bringing history’s greatest manuscripts thrillingly to life. Intriguing and enthralling, he reveals these treasures as living witnesses to faith and ambition.  In his new memoir, Migrants: A Memoir With Manuscripts, he reflects on a lifetime’s journey through books, borders and belonging.

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Alison Weir brings her acclaimed England’s Medieval Queens series to a riveting close with Queens at War, weaving the lives of five fifteenth-century English queens into the tumult of the Hundred Years’ War and the Wars of the Roses.

Expect vivid storytelling, meticulous research, and captivating portraits of Joan of Navarre, Katherine of Valois, Margaret of Anjou, Elizabeth Woodville and Anne Neville as they navigate love, loss and power in perilous times.  Chaired by Jo Durrant.

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The ancient Athenian statesman and naval commander Themistocles was called ‘the most illustrious Greek of his time’.

In a dizzying rise to power he masterminded victory over Persia at Salamis, helping to preserve Greek freedom, yet his life was a rollercoaster of dazzling brilliance and catastrophic misjudgement.

In this electrifying talk, top historian Michael Scott, presenter of BBC1’s Rome’s Invisible City, uncovers the drama of his rise and fall and offers a vivid insight into the turbulent world of ancient Athens.

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Top archaeologist and BBC Coast presenter Mark Horton tells the tragic story of the 38 settlers from Gloucestershire’s Berkeley Vale who sailed to America to found a colony on the James River.

They’re credited with the very first American thanksgiving, but by 1622, the surviving 22 settlers were attacked and murdered and the colony destroyed.

Over 400 years later Mark returned to Virginia and used archaeology to locate the original site. He shares their fascinating story and reveals new discoveries about their tragic fate.

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