The annual Malvern Water and Well Dressing Festival is set to return next week with a whole host of entertainment and water celebrations on offer.
The festival, which will be held from Saturday, 3 May to Sunday, 11 May 2025, will see up to 50 wells creatively decorated in the theme of Folklore and Fairytales.
The event starts the with dressing of the wells on Friday, 2 May, judging takes place on Saturday, 3 May, and prize giving with rosettes and certificates on bank holiday Monday, 5 May in Priory Park, where a family fun day also takes place.
Also to be held on bank holiday Monday is The Spirit of Malvern Open Air painting competition, where up to 100 artists will set out into the town and hills to seek inspiration.
The annual event celebrates the history of the Malvern Hills, including its iconic spring water and Victorian Water Cure.
It is brought to the town by the Malvern Spa Association in partnership with Malvern Hills District Council, with local businesses and community groups taking part. Last year, over 800 people took part in dressing the wells, springs and spouts.
Visitors can view the creations by setting off across the hills on foot, by bicycle or a minibus tour. Maps can be downloaded for free from www.visitthemalverns.org/welldressing or purchased from Malvern Tourist Information Centre.
Entertainment taking place includes singing, well blessings, British Society of Dowsers workshops, maypole and morris dancing, and much more. There will also be a theatre production at the Coach House Theatre on Monday, 5 May, called ‘Three Weeks in Wet Sheets’- a dramatisation of a diary kept by a victim of the Water Cure.
Victoria Carman, Visitor Economy and Towns Manager at Malvern Hills District Council, said: "We are really looking forward to this year’s Well Dressing Festival, it is a lovely event for people of all ages to enjoy and explore the town along with the magnificent Malvern Hills. Thank you to everyone in the community taking part – I can’t wait to see all the wonderful creations in this year’s theme folklore and fairy tales’.
Visit Malvern Well Dressing on Facebook or www.visitthemalverns.org/welldressing more information.
Date published: 25 April 2025
