Stroud and the surrounding district have a packed programme of events from Monday 7 to Sunday 13 September 2026, with exhibitions, live music, heritage openings, community celebrations and country pursuits all on the calendar.
The week includes a 20th-anniversary exhibition by the Gloucestershire Printmaking Cooperative at Lansdown Hall, a concert by Madchester band Inspiral Carpets at the Sub Rooms, and Heritage Open Days activities in Nailsworth. Minchinhampton will host its annual street party on Saturday, while Frampton-on-Severn’s country fair returns on Sunday.
Art, music and heritage in Stroud and Nailsworth
The Gloucestershire Printmaking Cooperative’s anniversary exhibition runs at Lansdown Hall from Tuesday 8 to Sunday 13 September, opening daily from 10am to 4pm. A private view and question-and-answer session with the artists is scheduled for 6pm on Tuesday.
Visitors to the exhibition will see work by the cooperative’s members as they mark 20 years of activity. The event is one of the week’s main arts highlights and offers an opportunity to meet the artists at the opening event.
Inspiral Carpets will play the Sub Rooms on Thursday 10 September at 7pm. The band, which formed in Oldham in 1983, continues to tour more than four decades later. Original vocalist Stephen Holt returned to the group in 2011, replacing Tom Hingley. The set is expected to include the songs Saturn 5 and This Is How It Feels.
Heritage Open Days will bring special openings to Nailsworth on Saturday 12 September. From 10am until 4pm or 5pm, depending on the venue, visitors can see Stokescroft, a little-altered Queen Anne house on Chestnut Hill, and the Grade II* listed Quaker Meeting House on Quakers Close. Stroud Textile Trust will also open Dunkirk Mill and Gigg Mill.
Further afield, a guided Beatrix Potter tour of Gloucester will run on Saturday 12 and Sunday 13 September at 2pm. The tour explores locations linked to Potter, including the story of her stay with her cousin at Harescombe Grange between Edge and Brookthorpe in May 1894.
Street celebrations and outdoor events
Minchinhampton High Street will close on Saturday afternoon for the Minch Moo Street Party, which runs from noon to 5pm. Residents are invited to bring picnics and portable furniture for a community celebration accompanied by live music.
The centrepiece will be the Minch Moo relay race, where competitors carry buckets of ‘milk’ along a designated route. Organisers are also promising plenty of bunting as part of the event’s traditional street-party atmosphere.
Frampton-on-Severn’s annual Country Fair takes place on Sunday 13 September from 9am to 6pm across 30 acres of formal parkland at the Frampton Court Estate.
The event is presented as a celebration of agricultural and country pursuits, with more than 400 trade stands, a traditional funfair, livestock and three display rings.
At Amberley’s Hill House Retreats, Community Juice Gloucestershire will hold an apple-juicing day on Sunday from 10am to 2pm. People attending are encouraged to bring ripe apples. Any surplus will be used to make Community Juice, with money raised supporting community projects.
New exhibition at the Museum in the Park
The Museum in the Park’s new UNmaking exhibition opens on Saturday 12 September and continues until Sunday 8 November.
The exhibition comes from The Textile Study Group and explores how deliberately deconstructing textiles can lead to new discoveries. The displayed works use processes including unravelling, cutting and unpicking to create pieces intended to challenge perceptions of textile art.
The events guide covers activities in Stroud and the wider district during the week. Community organisers can submit events for possible inclusion in future editions of the guide through the publication’s event-submission information.