Location

Your Festival ticket will give you full access to the extraordinarily beautiful WestDeanGardens, Parklandand Arboretum situated in the rolling folds of the South Downs.

The Gardens offer a stunning showcase for variety in planting and excellence in presentation with many architectural delights, where festival goers can wander, and offering sensational settings and backdrops for artists, comedians, musicians and performers to create a theatre of the imagination.

The West Dean Festival is taking place in the exceptionally beautiful 100 acres that make up the WestDeanGardensand Parkland. Positioned within the newly designated South DownsNational Park, the Gardens have a head start in the beauty stakes enjoying a magnificent ‘borrowed landscape’ of the surrounding LavantValleyand the rolling Downsbeyond.

Part of the Gardens’ charm is their variety and extent. Renowned for the restored walled kitchen garden this is but a small part of what is on offer. An excellent way of enjoying the site is to take the 2 ½ mile long Parkland Walk which leads you gently through all areas of the gardens including the Park and the 50 acre St Roche’s arboretum.

Starting in the grounds you can wander along the opulent Edwardian 300-foot long pergola draped in roses, clematis and honeysuckle. Enjoy the stunning views from the front of the 19th Century flint house (now West Dean College) out into the natural amphitheatre of the surrounding parkland, wend your way through the tranquil beauty of the Spring Garden, bisected by the River Lavant and then be knocked out by the flowers and foliage of the Wild Garden.

Leaving the gardens and entering the Park, beautiful vistas along the Lavant Valley start to open up until eventually you enter the St Roche’s arboretum.

Having rambled through the arboretum you re-enter the Park high up on the down and, as you progress, spectacular views as far as the Isle of Wightare revealed and you are afforded a bird’s eye view of the College, festival grounds and walled garden spreading out below.

And finally, having come down from the dizzy heights you can enter the walled garden and discover the plethora of plants contained within its walls and immaculately restored thirteen Victorian glasshouses.

A sensational setting? where you can while way an hour or a day?

Full access to the Gardens, Parklandand Arboretum are available throughout the weekend.For those camping, rather than rushing off on Monday, take your time to fully explore them.

West Dean Festival, West Dean College and Gardens, Near Chichester,
West Sussex, PO18 0QZ, Tel: +44 (0)1243 811 301.

The West Dean Festival will celebrate all aspects of the arts. It's a festival where people can come together to share their love of making music, ideas, performance, dance, film, storytelling, cooking and eating. All taking place in a breathtaking setting in the rolling South Downs near Chichester.