Set in the beau­ti­ful grounds of Pylewell Park, close to the har­bour town of Lyming­ton on the Hamp­shire coast, Curi­ous Arts Fes­ti­val is fast gath­er­ing a rep­u­ta­tion as one of the most intrigu­ing and refined dates in the British cul­tur­al calendar.

Select­ed last year by the BBC as one of ​‘eight extra­or­di­nary fes­ti­vals’, the line-up includes a for­mi­da­ble cast of lit­er­ary tal­ent rang­ing from the Poet Lau­re­ate, Car­ol Ann Duffy to Book­er prize-win­ner DBC Pierre and author of The Best Exot­ic Marigold Hotel nov­els, Deb­o­rah Moggach.

Laugh­ter abounds in the late after­noon as stand-up come­di­ans take to the stage with their whim­si­cal and intel­lec­tu­al obser­va­tion­al mus­ings. The bill this year includes, Chris Mar­tin, Zoe Lyons, Lloyd Grif­fiths, Simon Evans and improv troupe, the Noise Next Door.

If that wasn’t enough, the evenings come alive with an array of musi­cal acts from the up and com­ing to the down­right estab­lished with this year’s line-up has the likes of Bil­ly Bragg, Lucy Rose, Skin­ny Lis­ter, Jake Isaac and Matt Mal­tese as well as some world-beat­ing boo­gie woo­gie piano from Ben Waters, regard­ed by Jools Hol­land as one of his top ten favourite pianists of all time.

As you might expect from a fes­ti­val called ​‘Curi­ous’, there are oodles of oth­er occur­rences tak­ing place, includ­ing: a son­net-athon led by cel­e­brat­ed play­wright Pol­ly Sten­ham, life draw­ing, snail rac­ing, poet­ry work­shops, insect walks, jab­ber­wocky hunts, gar­den tours, an authors’ XI crick­et match, a well­be­ing cen­tre, yoga, bed­time sto­ries and a film tent.

The whole fes­ti­val kicks-off with an oper­at­ic per­for­mance on the Thurs­day evening, sup­port­ed by a 30 strong choir. The list goes on…

Head to www​.curi​ousarts​fes​ti​val​.com for full infor­ma­tion on the line-up, odd­i­ties, camp­ing, glamp­ing and, of course, to buy tick­ets. The organ­is­ers have giv­en Bois­dale cus­tomers a spe­cial 15% dis­count on week­end tick­ets (full price £120. Day tick­ets also avail­able). Sim­ply use the code ​‘curiousfriend2016’ when booking.