St Dunstan's Festival
Welcome to the St Dunstan’s Festival 2025
13 exciting days of events for everyone — performances, competitions, exhibitions, talks and workshops.
We are delighted to welcome you to this year’s St Dunstan’s Festival, a vibrant celebration of creativity, community, and collaboration. Running across both the main College campus and our dedicated festival site at the Jubilee Grounds, the Festival continues to be a much-loved part of College life, evolving year after year.
Rooted in our long-standing tradition as an arts festival, the event was reimagined when our current Head joined the College — and it has since grown into the inclusive, diverse programme we know today.
We are so fortunate to have a progressive and forward-thinking CEO in Nick Hewlett, who has championed the renaissance education we offer here at St Dunstan’s, with the Festival being one of the key tangible outcomes of that commitment.
A key highlight of the 2025 Festival is the return of The Catford Weekender, the dynamic centrepiece of our festivities. This community-focused weekend champions local music, art, sport, craft, theatre and more. As the Weekender continues to grow, we’re excited to see it extend beyond the Festival site into the heart of Catford — with events in local pubs, halls, churches, and anywhere people come together to celebrate.
Another step forward this year is our partnership with Lewisham Council to deliver The BIG Catford Weekender — a borough-wide community event over the central weekend of the Festival, with our Catford Weekender as the headline feature. It’s incredibly exciting to be opening up our festival grounds to the wider community for live music, workshops, football, family fun and so much more.
Our outdoor stage will showcase live performances by local musicians, while artisan makers and designers will sell and exhibit their work in the Big Top. Throughout the Festival, hands-on workshops will invite visitors of all ages to try everything from circus skills to soul singing, or to hear inspiring talks from local authors, artists, and performers.
As we come together to celebrate who we are as a College and a community, we embrace the opportunity to grow, express, and connect — living out our motto Albam Exorna: to adorn the white, transforming a blank canvas into a rich, shared tapestry of talent and creativity.
We warmly invite you to join us for one or more of the many events taking place during the Festival — to enjoy, discover, perform, compete, and most of all, to celebrate together.
Richard Gregg
Festival Director and Director of Drama
Useful Links
Find out what's on in the Festival Brochure
2025 Programme
Catford Weekender - See what's on this year!
Watch last year's highlights
History
St Dunstan's Festival originated in the 1990s under the stewardship of Dr Anthony Seldon, who was Deputy Head of the College at that time. It was originally named ‘The Catford Arts Festival’ and ran over two and a half days at the very start of July.
The Festival was quickly dubbed ‘The Edinburgh Festival of South London’, and comprised over twenty main events and ‘a rich and enterprising fringe’. The 1994 College Chronicle describes the Festival as ‘catering for the souls’ and it contained an array of eclectic events including the St Dunstan’s jazz group, lectures given by writers Brian Masters and Gwendoline Butler, and a Shakespeare play with a twist, entitled ‘A Pocket of Midsummer Night’s Dream’.
Growth and Change
The Festival was short-lived, only lasting a few years. The current Head reignited the Festival on his arrival at the College, with its relaunch occurring in the summer of 2015. The now two-week event is a firmly established highlight at the end of the academic year, enabling pupils to engage with a huge variety of activities and performances, involving not only the College, but also our broader Lewisham community.
Watch the highlights from our 2022 Festival
Photos from 2022
Photos from 2021
