We are delighted to have won gold in the 2026/27 Dorset Tourism Awards.
Our 2025 Inside Out Dorset festival saw off tough competition in the Tourism Event / Festival of the Year category with the other shortlisted entries: Bournemouth Writing Festival (who won silver) and Swanage Carnival 2026 and Swanage Folk Festival 2025 (who were both awarded bronze). Huge congratulations to all the entries in this year’s awards.
Activate’s Theatre and Engagement Producer, Maheen Mohammadally and Activate’s film partner Gary Jarman from Pageant Productions, collected the award at the dazzling awards ceremony at the Marsham Court Hotel in Bournemouth on 22 October 2026.
47,389 visits were made to Inside Out Dorset events in September 2025, to free performances across five locations in Dorset and South Somerset. 25% of audiences visited from outside the county, including international visitors. Economic Impact reporting indicated that the festival generated £1,253,758 in visitor expenditure for the area.
At Activate we believe great art should be accessible to all – visitors can experience our Inside Out Dorset festival for free. The festival brings extraordinary events to extraordinary places in Dorset’s rural and urban landscapes, in partnership with landowners and others including local BIDs, councils and Dorset National Landscape. In 2025 we worked with international artists, including four Catalonian companies and dance artists from India, as well as Dorset-based artists Lorna Rees and Rohan Gotobed. Our community engagement is central to our work, with local schools and groups performing to crowds of thousands – notably in Sonnet of Samsara in Weymouth, which was part of the national project Beach of Dreams.
Kate Wood, Activate’s Executive and Artistic Director said, “How extraordinary it is to win a Gold Award and be recognised with all our partners for what culture can bring to the county.”
A big thank you to Dorset Tourism Awards and our category sponsor Colour Blue. The award itself now has a place alongside our other awards on our dedicated shelf in the Activate office!
Our next Inside Out Dorset festival will take place in September 2027, when we’ll be celebrating our 20th anniversary.
Image courtesy of Nick Williams at Keynote Photography.