Record-breaking Nevill Holt Festival closes 2026 season with 16,000 tickets sold across four weeks of opera, arts, entertainment and ideas

The Article

Mon 29 June, 2026

Donizetti from Opera North, an inaugural Health Agenda Day with Lord Cameron, and a programme running from Dame Kristin Scott Thomas to Sue Perkins cap the Festival’s most ambitious year — and underline the East Midlands’ rise as a cultural destination.

Nevill Holt, Leicestershire June 23 2026: The Nevill Holt Festival has closed its most successful season to date, selling 16,000  tickets across four weeks of opera, music, comedy, literature, politics, food and family events – up 20% on 2025 – and drawing visitors to the Leicestershire estate of founder David Ross. The Festival was produced and programmed for a second year by UK-based live entertainment company

Underbelly. 

More than 100 events took place across the Festival site, from a stellar run of Donizetti’s Don Pasquale, staged in partnership with Opera North, to internationally acclaimed music performances including the Preservation Hall All-Stars direct from New Orleans, and a crowd-pleasing Symphonic Ibiza spectacular, alongside free Community Stage performances and a programme of events for local schoolchildren and families. 25% of ticket revenue from Lord Cameron’s Health Agenda Day appearance was donated to Alzheimer’s Research UK. 

Opera North production receives national and trade acclaim

At the heart of the season was Don Pasquale, the second production in the Festival’s five-year partnership with Opera North, directed by  James Hurley and uniquely set in a  1960s Italian film studio. The production drew four stars from The Times and an exceptional five-star review in The Stage. Across the national and specialist press, soprano Harriet Eyley’s Norina and conductor Michael Papadopoulos were singled out for praise. The Stage called it “an evening that pops”, while The Arts Desk hailed a “triumph of the young”.

World-class music 

The Festival’s music offer was expanded this year, with audiences embracing an eclectic programme spanning jazz, classical crossover and dance. Grammy-winning Buena Vista Social Club pianist Rolando Luna captivated audiences with his Havana Jazz Trio, while the legendary Preservation Hall All-Stars transformed the Font House Garden into an atmospheric open-air New Orleans jazz club in a Festival first. The season closed on a high as Symphonic Ibiza had audiences on their feet, bringing orchestral arrangements of dance classics to a packed Festival crowd and rounding off the four-week programme in celebratory style.

An inaugural Health Agenda Day led by Lord Cameron

The Festival’s inaugural Health Agenda Day proved one of its most talked-about moments. Former Prime Minister Lord Cameron spoke candidly about his own prostate cancer treatment, the loss of his son Ivan and his mother’s dementia, and made the case for a properly targeted national prostate-screening programme. Health Agenda Day also featured  Professor Sir Jonathan Van-Tam, who reflected on the pandemic with characteristic bluntness – describing it as “once in a political lifetime… not a scientific one” – and pioneering heart surgeon Professor Stephen Westaby.

Also speaking about their research were Professor Fiona Gilbert (Dept of Radiology, University of Cambridge), Professor Matt Brookes OBE (St Peter Mansfield Imaging Centre, University of Nottingham), Professor Nigel Mongan  (Faculty of Medicine and Health, University of Nottingham) and Dr Mairi Houlgreave (Tourette Research N3 Centre, University of Nottingham). 

The strongest line-up in the Festival’s history

Dame Kristin Scott Thomas, Sir Mark Rylance and Johnny Flynn read Shakespeare’s Venus and Adonis; broadcaster Clare Balding appeared in conversation with Olympic champion Rebecca Adlington; and audiences heard from Hugh Bonneville, historian David Olusoga, Sue Perkins, Alexander Armstrong, designers Nicky Haslam and Anya Hindmarch and former Chief of MI6 Sir Richard Moore. Angela Hartnett and Jeremy King spoke about their careers in hospitality, while artist Marc Quinn and a season-long exhibition by Harland Miller anchored the visual-arts programme.

Local talent and young audiences at the centre

The Community and education side of the programme makes the Festival unique. Test Match Special’s Jonathan Agnew expertly played his euphonium with the Melton Band alongside actors Dame Imelda Staunton and Jim Carter – who even took up the conducting baton! 

Pupils from the David Ross Education Trust performed Purcell’s Dido and Aeneas with Gabrieli Roar, and free community sets took place from the Melton Band and the Stamford Stompers Dixieland Jazz Band. Families also enjoyed hands-on creative workshops with bestselling children’s author and illustrator Rob Biddulph, whose hugely popular Draw With Rob session encouraged young audiences to pick up pencils and create alongside him, while BAFTA-winning, Oscar-nominated creator Mikey Please brought his wildly imaginative storytelling to life in an interactive event inspired by his award-winning children’s books. Local artist Nettie Wakefield also inspired adults to brush off their creative skills and attend a drawing workshop surrounded by iconic sculptures in the Nevill Holt gardens.

A festival at the heart of a rising cultural region

The 2026 season unfolded as the surrounding area – increasingly known as “the Notswolds” – drew national attention as a cultural and creative destination, featured this spring in the Financial Times, The Times, Tatler and House & Garden. The Festival has become a central draw in a corner of the East Midlands, now firmly on the cultural map.

Festival founder and Chairman David Ross: “When we open the doors each year, I want Nevill Holt to feel like somewhere you don’t have to go to London to find the very best culture – and I think this season proved it. To welcome more people than ever to Nevill Holt over four weeks, from a world-class Opera North production to local schoolchildren performing on our stages, has been a real privilege. I’m proud that so much of what we do is firmly rooted in this part of the country, and hugely grateful to Opera North, to all our performers and partners, and above all to the audiences who made 2026 our best year yet. We’ll be back, and bigger, in 2027.”

Ed Bartlam, Founder and Director of Underbelly: “What I love about Nevill Holt is watching people arrive for one show and leave having discovered three more – they come for the opera and stay for the comedy, or come for a talk and end up at a jazz set. That range, and the way this year’s audiences embraced all of it, is what makes the Festival special, and what makes me so confident about where it goes next.”

The Nevill Holt Festival will return in 2027, continuing its five-year partnership with Opera North. Full details will be announced in due course.

Tickets and information: nevillholtfestival.com

ENDS

NOTES TO EDITORS

Key facts and figures

  • 16’000 tickets sold across the 2026 season, up 20% on 2025.
  • More than 100 shows across opera, music, comedy, literature, politics, food and family events.
  • Five-performance, sell-out run of Donizetti’s Don Pasquale with Opera North — the second year of a five-year partnership.
  • 25% of ticket revenue from Lord Cameron’s Health Day appearance donated to Alzheimer’s Research UK. 
  • Many tickets subsidised; free Community Stage and dedicated programming for local schools and families.

Critical acclaim – Don Pasquale (for arts and trade desks)

  • The Times – four stars; “whizzes along entertainingly” under Michael Papadopoulos.
  • The Stage – “an evening that pops”.
  • The Arts Desk – “triumph of the young”.
  • Music OMH – Nevill Holt’s “1960s film studio Donizetti dazzles”.
  • Cast: Grant Doyle (Don Pasquale), Harriet Eyley (Norina), Aaron Godfrey-Mayes (Ernesto), Henry Neill (Malatesta), Ross McInroy (Notary). Director James Hurley; designs Elliott Squire; conductor Michael Papadopoulos; Orchestra of Opera North.

Local and community highlights (for regional desks)

  • Pupils from the David Ross Education Trust performed Purcell’s Dido and Aeneas with Gabrieli Roar (conductor Paul McCreesh).
  • Jonathan “Aggers” Agnew performed with the Melton Band – one of the world’s oldest brass bands – alongside Dame Imelda Staunton and Jim Carter.
  • Free Community Stage performances from the Melton Band and the Stamford Stompers Dixieland Jazz Band.
  • Family programming including Lemon Jelly Arts (children’s drama workshop and Matilda JR), a Lincolnshire Youth Ballet workshop, and Tweedy the Clown.
  • Local poet Tim Relf, who lives near the estate, hosted a poetry event in the 14th-century chapel.

Full 2026 programme highlights

  • Opera & music: Don Pasquale (Opera North); Ronnie Scott’s Jazz Orchestra with Iain Mackenzie; Symphonic Ibiza; the Jay Rayner Sextet; Rolando Luna and the Havana Jazz Trio; Oakham School Big Band; the Stamford Stompers.
  • History, politics & current affairs: Sir Ben Wallace; Sir Richard Moore in conversation with Sir Alan Duncan; John Simpson; Christopher Steele; David Olusoga; Ed Vaizey and Thangam Debbonaire with Will Gompertz.
  • Health Day: Lord Cameron; Professor Sir Jonathan Van-Tam; Professor Stephen Westaby; plus leading researchers from Cambridge, Nottingham and beyond.
  • Arts, literature & design: Marc Quinn; Harland Miller exhibition; Dame Anya Hindmarch; Dame Zandra Rhodes; Kristin Scott Thomas, Mark Rylance and Johnny Flynn (Venus and Adonis); Anne de Courcy, Siân Evans and Rachel Trethewey.
  • Food & hospitality: Angela Hartnett with Ewan Venters; Tom Parker Bowles with Matthew Fort; Ben Tish; the Cubitt House x Mirabeau Endless Lunch; Matty Edgell.
  • Comedy & entertainment: Underbelly’s Cabaret and Comedy All Stars; Rory Bremner; Jenny Eclair; Jason Byrne; Sue Perkins; Abandoman; the Comedy Store; Hugh Bonneville.
  • Sport & wellness: Clare Balding with Rebecca Adlington; Alistair Brownlee with Eddie “The Eagle” Edwards; Jonathan Agnew with Imelda Staunton and Jim Carter; Feel Good Flow and Somatic Flow Yoga.