What’s On – Local events guide

Retired or thinking of retiring? Joining u3a gives you the chance to make friends and learn something new or further an existing interest. We currently have over 85 member run groups/activities in Dorchester during the day for you to take part in ranging from Archaeology and Art to Science, Weaving, Wildlife and Conservation . Please come along to learn more about what we have to offer.

Featuring Tatterdemalion, the band of the New Hardy Players, caller Angela Laycock. Early evening session especially for families with younger children, later evening for all. No experience or partner necessary. Bar available. Kiddies’ Keilidh 5.30pm — 6.30, £5 per person. Evening Ceilidh 7.30pm – 10pm, £13 or £7 concessions (under-18s or low wage).

You are warmly invited to our candlelit Epiphany Carol Service on Saturday10th January at 4.30pm in St Peter’s Church, Dorchester. Hear the final part of the Christmas story told through bible readings, poetry, carols and fantastic choral music by Cornelius, Mendelssohn, Philip Stopford, Poulenc and many others. All are very welcome to this service, which is free to attend.

Christmas too expensive? Lower your financial stress with CAP Money Coaching. This simple money management course will help you to budget, spend and save better. Full details and how to sign up at our website. Dorchester Poverty Action and Dorchester Foodbank have generously offered a £20 Co-op voucher to all DT1/DT2 residents who complete the course. Max eight people per course.

Join us at St Peter’s Church Dorchester on Saturday 17th December between 12.30pm and 1pm for our lunchtime concert. This is a thirty-minute recital of songs and arias performed by soprano Daisy Tye, who is accompanied by Jonathan Prentice. Admission is free and all are very welcome.

You are warmly invited to our cathedral-style service of Choral Eucharist on Sunday 18th January at 10.30am in St Peter’s Church, Dorchester. The music includes: Victoria’s ‘Missa o magnum mysterium’, Howells’s ‘Here is the little door’ and Berlioz’s ‘The shepherd’s farewell’. All are very welcome to this free service and for refreshments afterwards.

Christmas too expensive? Lower your financial stress with CAP Money Coaching. This simple money management course will help you to budget, spend and save better. Full details and how to sign up at our website. Dorchester Poverty Action and Dorchester Foodbank have generously offered a £20 Co-op voucher to all DT1/DT2 residents who complete the course. Max eight people per course.

You are warmly invited to our monthly, cathedral-style service of Choral Evensong on Saturday 24th January at 4.30pm in St Peter’s Church, Dorchester. The music includes Tallis’s ‘Salvator mundi’, the ‘Preces & Responses’ by Richard Seal, Brewer’s ‘Evening Canticles in D’ and ‘Blessed city, heavenly Salem’ by Bairstow. Admission is free and there is a glass of wine to follow. All are very welcome.

2:00 pm. Windrush Willow at The Sleeping Bear Hotel. Come and join in our workshop, learn to create willow dragonflies and bird feeders. Cost £35.00 refreshments provided.

7:30 pm. A much-loved and charming film from 2004. This is the story of an inspirational music teacher in a correctional boarding school for boys. Set in 1948, it relates the power of music and kindness. Beautiful and touching! 12A Musical/drama, 1h 37m.

West Dorset CAMRA and Dorchester Casterbridge Rotary Club proudly present the 37th Dorchester Beerex. Over the years, Dorchester Beerex has raised over £300,000 for local good causes. This year’s event takes place on Friday 6th and Saturday 7th February 2026. We will have 84 real ales, a large selection of ciders and perry, seating for 100 upstairs and 50 downstairs.

7:30 pm. More than a soldier, more than an emperor, Napoleon was also very human. This talk looks not only at his military and political career, but also his love life, including Josephine and the string of other women in his life. Speaker, James Porter is a retired Army Lieutenant Colonel with a long and impressive military career. He is head of Dorchester Military History Group.

7.30pm on 12th and 13th, 2.30pm and 7.30pm on 14th. Sinbad in Space – written by group member Ron Karley. A pantomime for all to enjoy. Tickets are £9.00 currently available from Box office telephone as below, also can be purchased at Londis shop at Milborne St. Andrew. For more information follow web link below.

Sylvia and her partner, Valentine Ackland, fell in love with Dorset and lived in Chaldon Herring and Frome Vauchurch near Maiden Newton from 1930 till the end of their lives. Mark Chutter will talk on the life and legacy of this important Dorset-based writer to mark LGBTQ+ history month. Tickets £8 for DAT members, £10 for non-members. Please book via ticketsource (web link below). Tickets include wine & nibbles.

Get ready for an epic clash of titans! Join us for a thrilling charity football match as the South Western Ambulance Service takes on Dorset Police in a battle for bragging rights and, more importantly, to raise vital funds for four incredible charities. Tickets on sale now – Check out our website!