The Ware Festival Committee is hard at work putting together an exciting and vibrant celebration for 2025, with a fresh new identity and a packed schedule of events.

The month kicks off with Carnival Day & the Town Fair, which takes place on Saturday, July 5th, where the theme 'Colour Rush' promises a bright and lively Carnival Parade bringing a burst of colour to the streets. This year, the event will support two important local charities, Isabel Hospice and Southern Maltings, which are well-known within the community. The Boat Parade & river activities are also on Saturday, July 5th.

The festivities continue with a series of events, including:

Ware Festival of Running (10 mile, 10k and children's races) on Sunday,... Read more

Children's Craft Carousel - Get your crafting in at Southern Maltings this Summer.

Younger children can choose from different craft stations set up with a selection of craft activities - going from one to the next like a carousel!

The theme is simply Colour, to tie in with the Colour Rush events that will be taking place across our town during the Ware Festival. Come and get all your holiday crafting in at Southern Maltings.

We will also have playdough and small world play.

Get crafty and have lots of fun and leave the mess for us to clear up!

The craft activities are suitable for ages 3-7; however older children are welcome to come along and enjoy the offerings.... Read more

Children's Craft Carousel - Get your crafting in at Southern Maltings this Summer.

Younger children can choose from different craft stations set up with a selection of craft activities - going from one to the next like a carousel!

The theme is simply Colour, to tie in with the Colour Rush events that will be taking place across our town during the Ware Festival. Come and get all your holiday crafting in at Southern Maltings.

We will also have playdough and small world play.

Get crafty and have lots of fun and leave the mess for us to clear up!

The craft activities are suitable for ages 3-7; however older children are welcome to come along and enjoy the offerings.... Read more

Children's Craft Carousel - Get your crafting in at Southern Maltings this Summer.

Younger children can choose from different craft stations set up with a selection of craft activities - going from one to the next like a carousel!

The theme is simply Colour, to tie in with the Colour Rush events that will be taking place across our town during the Ware Festival. Come and get all your holiday crafting in at Southern Maltings.

We will also have playdough and small world play.

Get crafty and have lots of fun and leave the mess for us to clear up!

The craft activities are suitable for ages 3-7; however older children are welcome to come along and enjoy the offerings.... Read more

Junk Zine Workshop. Join us for this new workshop with tutor Jess Hyde to create your own original Zine from a treasure trove of mixed media 'junk'.

These Zines are a lot of fun, the idea is to use an array of scrap materials like paper, old receipts, sweet wrappers, stickers etc to create something fun and visually interesting. The zines don't need to have a theme or meaning, but of course they can do. Sometimes once a junk zine starts coming together, it develops a theme subconsciously.

The finished result should be a personal mini piece of mixed media art to take home to treasure forever!

Jessica is a painter as well as an independent comic book writer and illustrator, who teaches a regular Comic Book class at Courtyard Arts and hopes to bring... Read more

Join Local artist and art club teacher Keeda, in this magical miniature illustration workshop where you will be taking inspiration from Queen Mary's famous dollhouse.

Illustrating in fine liners and colouring pencils, you will be bringing to life your very own concertina dollhouse design!

And if there's time left over, some teeny tiny characters too!

Keeda says "I absolutely love miniature things and it is one of my dreams to one day design and decorate my very own dollhouse. In the meantime I have come up with this simple and effective concertina dollhouse. Where you can express your own creative side through tiny illustrations.
Come and explore all the magical wonders of a miniature world with me"

Keeda is a new tutor to Read more

Join local Artist Keeda in this fun and colourful art workshop. Exploring mark making and paper cutting, You will be drawing inspiration from artist David Hockney. Looking at his colourful landscapes, we will use oil pastels and colour papers to create a jungle world, inside a shoebox.

Keeda says "I love paper crafts and collage, It's all about experimentation. While looking at David Hockney's use of bright colours and quick simple mark making, we will create something visually fun and exciting, without being held back by being precise"

Keeda is a new tutor to Southern Maltings, running some delightful fully booked workshops at May Half Term. She has plenty of experience of teaching children art with local group Art Explorers. She... Read more

Urban Sketching in Ware. Join us 'en plein air' for some urban sketching, capturing the beauty of Ware's Architecture with tutor Elena Russu.

This workshop is outside and your teen will be walking around the town and sketching in various locations. Looking at line, detail, composition, perspective, tone and colour they will quickly gain the skills and confidence to start capturing the beauty of their surroundings in Ware.

After a short introduction to herself and each other, Elena will demonstrate different tricks and techniques and how she builds her sketches.

Tutor Elena Russu has plenty of experience in her favourite past time of Urban Sketching. She has taught both adults and children both in person and online, in a variety if different workshops... Read more

Macramé Jam. Join local macramé artist Macramé Mummy Becky, for a fantastic day of of macramé making.

In our afternoon session Becky will be running her first Macramé Jam at Southern Maltings. It is something she does regularly at the Simon Balle, where she runs a regular Macramé Club. Sometimes kids just need the tools and support to get be inspired, get creative and go on their own knotting journey.

This afternoon session will see Becky open her Pandora's Box of knotting goodies for the children to make what they desire, with her guidance and help. It could be keyrings, bag charms, small wall hangings or wreaths or something else we haven't thought of.... the knotting world is their oyster! Many of our macramé kids come back... Read more

Join Local artist and art club teacher Keeda to be a fashion designer. Exploring the world of fashion and taking the seasons as our inspiration, we will be looking through books and magazines to gain ideas for our own dress or dungaree designs.
Using a selection of techniques and mediums, paint, pen, crayon and collage, we will create a final art design to scale.

Keeda says "I love fashion and nature! So what's better than combining the two? This is a super fun workshop, where we will have fun drawing around each other, to create our scale paper bases. With the seasons being our inspiration, you can create anything from floral dresses, to icy dungarees! The ideas are endless and with the added bonus of large scale design!"

Keeda is a new tutor to Southern... Read more

Pop Art Portrait Canvas Workshop - Join Local artist Keeda and art club teacher, in this colourful self-portrait workshop!

We will be looking at how to draw faces in proportion, using the horizontal division method in preparation for painting our final self-portrait on canvas.

Looking at famous pop artist Roy Lichtenstein for inspiration. Famous for his bold and colourful, comic books style portraits.

We will be using an array of bright acrylic paints to create a fun and colourful self-portrait. Along with learning a little bit about colour mixing. Make sure to wear your messy clothes!

Keeda says "I have loved Pop art since a child and was very lucky to see the Roy Lichtenstein exhibition, at the Louisiana museum of art in Denmark.... Read more