Swanage’s arts hub, The Mowlem, threw wide its doors for a Big Weekend of performances, workshops, and backstage tours, showcasing to the local community what it does.
The two day event took place at the start of the summer season on Saturday 30th and Sunday 31st May 2026, and while it had to compete with the attraction of the beach over a sunny weekend, the building buzzed with activity.
The Mowlem sits right on Swanage’s sandy beach
The first ever Big Weekend
More than 25,000 visitors a year
The Mowlem, a charitable organisation, has a 380 seat auditorium, studio space, gallery, and The Showbar, hosting more than 300 events a year, and annually welcomes more than 25,000 visitors through its doors.
However, many visit for a specific show or performance and don’t get to linger to see what else is on offer, so the Big Weekend event, with free entry, aimed to change that.
The event included backstage tours and an Art Cafe in the Showbar, where visitors could make their own mini figure out of clay, culminating in an exhibition in The Studio on the Sunday.
There were also workshops in poetry, dance, drawing, theatre, singing and beatbox for a £5 donation, plus opera in the auditorium on the Saturday and a cinema screening on the Sunday.
The puppet making workshop
A show for children called Up Jumped The Crab
A drawing workshop with Martin Brown from Horrible Histories fame
“What shall we do next year?”
Executive director of The Mowlem Kate McGregor said:
“We’ve had some amazing feedback over the weekend, which makes me really proud of what the team has delivered.
“So pleased that many found our event to be very accessible and welcoming. One man told me that his wife, who lives with dementia, had really enjoyed making the clay figures and found it really therapeutic, while the puppet workshop was filled with families enjoying themselves.
“At times it’s been really packed in parts of The Mowlem, which has been very heartening. The question now is, what shall we do next year? It would be good to build on the achievement!”
Executive director Kate McGregor in the main auditorium
Operations manager Thomas Curtis takes visitors on a backstage tour
Fundraising to restore the 1960s building
The Mowlem, which was built in 1967, hence the controversial modern brutalist architecture, has recently required a large degree of refurbishment and restoration due to its age.
At the beginning of 2026, the leaky roof was eventually replaced after a major fundraising campaign and now funds are being raised to replace the stage curtain track which has reached the end of its natural life. Nearly £5,000 of the £6,000 target has been achieved but there’s still over £1,000 to raise.
Hearing loops will be installed later in June 2026, the acoustics in The Showbar are being improved, and an accessible lift to get people with mobility issues onto the stage is planned.
The community group for young people, Allsort’d has already raised a lot of the money for the stage lift, along with others, and is staging A Night at the Musicals at 7.30 pm on 10th and 11th June 2026 at All Saint’s Church in Swanage, to help raise the last of the amount needed.
Swanage WI raised more than £800 to fund booster seats for children who visit the theatre and also contributed to the curtain rail fund.
New booster cushions for children are now available
The curtain track is due to be replaced
Summer programme
With the improvements underway, there’s plenty planned at The Mowlem as part of the summer programme.
There’s plenty of music including Swanage Jazz Festival fringe events, The Swanage Big Sing mass participation event, Swanage’s sea shanty group Kelp!, a Purbeck Disco Party in The Studio, and DJ Sunset Sessions in The Showbar with Jai Danton.
A family puppet and live music performance The Zoo That Comes To You is for children from 5 years upwards, and there’s The Farewell Tour by Tony Christie, the legendary singer known for classics like Is This The Way To Amarillo.
Not least is the Summer of Music, which is returning for a fourth year with a tribute band line-up including brand new performances from Oasiz and This is Floyd, alongside a couple of favourites including The Alter Eagles and Take a Chance on Us.
In the sound and lighting gallery
Summer of Music 2026 line up
- Break The Rules: Status Quo Tribute – Friday 24th July 7.30 pm
- This Is Floyd – Saturday 8th August 7.30 pm
- Heard it Through the Grapevine – Monday 10th August 7.30 pm
- Tom Petty and Fleetwood Mac Legacy Show – Wednesday 12th August 7.30 pm
- Good Times: A Tribute to Nile Rodgers and Chic – Saturday 15th August 7.30 pm
- Sounds of the 60’s with The Zoots – Monday 17th August 7.30 pm
- Alter Eagles – Wednesday 19th August 7.30 pm
- Oasiz – Saturday 22nd August 7.30 pm
- Take A Chance On Us – Monday 24th August 7.30 pm
- The Upbeat Beatles – Wednesday 26th August 7.30 pm
- Elvis: From Memphis to Vegas – Saturday 29th August 7.30 pm
Making clay figures was a popular activity
All the clay objects were displayed in The Studio
Further information
- Go to The Mowlem’s new website to find out more and to book
