Never miss a thing in Bedford ever again. From theatre to film, live music to art exhibitions, The Bedford Clanger what’s on guide lands every Wednesday and is the only guide you need to find out what’s on and what’s happening across the Borough for the next 11 days.
The Bedford Clanger’s What’s On Guide is kindly sponsored by Bedford Esquires.
Wednesday, 25 February 2026
Live music: Whitelands + Swallowtail
Bedford Esquires @ 7.30pm
Tickets: £12.50
Club Biscuit Promotions and The ROAR Club are delighted to be bringing Whitelands back to Esquires this month.
The London based dream-poppers, who were last seen at the venue supporting English Teacher at Ceremony 3.5, will be touring in support of their sophomore album ‘Sunlight Echoes’, released on the always dependable Sonic Cathedral record label at the end of January.
Produced by long-time collaborator Ian Flynn and mixed by double Grammy Award-winner Eduardo De La Paz (New Order, The Horrors, The Charlatans), ‘Sunlight Echoes’ features guest vocals from labelmate Emma Anderson (Lush) and sees the band embrace a more expansive sound that takes them out of the shoegaze shadows to somewhere bigger, better and brighter.
For fans of: RIDE, Slowdive.
Thursday, 26 February 2026
Stevington Cinema Club presents: NTLive screening of The Audience
Stevington Village Hall, MK43 7QT@ 6.30pm
Tickets: prices vary
Returning to cinemas for the first time in over a decade, Helen Mirren plays Queen Elizabeth II.
Thursday, 26 February 2026
Live music: The Howlers + Carpark
Bedford Esquires
Tickets: £15
London desert-rockers The Howlers have never strayed from their open and honest approach to musicianship, quickly identifying themselves as one of the UK’s must-see acts.
Their debut album, What You’ve Got To Lose To Win It All, received much deserved praise and achieved various top 10 positions across Europe and the UK, solidifying their place as one of the UK’s most unique independent bands, in a class of their own.
Friday, 27 February 2026
Art & culture: Talk on Noel Carrington by Joe Pearson
Bunyan Meeting Church, Mill Street @ 2pm – 3pm
Free, booking essential
Join exhibition curator Joe Pearson to learn more about the amazing career of Noel Carrington and the artists he championed. Joe is an established collector and writer on mid-century lithography.
In 2015 he founded Design for Today, a press and publisher, with the aim of workingwith designers and illustrators to create limited edition books and cards.
Friday, 27 February & Sunday, 1 March 2026
NTLive Theatre: Hamlet
The Quarry Theatre @ 7pm Friday & 2pm Sunday
Tickets: £15.50
Olivier Award-winner Hiran Abeysekera (Life of Pi) is Hamlet in this fearless, contemporary take on Shakespeare’s famous tragedy.
Friday, 27 February 2026
Live music: Easydread
Bedford Esquires @ 7.30pm
Tickets: £10
Reggae rebels, Easydread have (finally!) recorded their new album ‘Sound of the Uprising’ and will be celebrating its release at Esquires on Friday, 27 February, with special guests Baldhead, The Tics and Snipit & The Hotrocks!
Join the party for just a tenner.
Saturday, 28 February 2026
Community: Bedford Repair Cafe
Project 229, Bedford Road, Kempston MK42 8DA @ 10am-3pm drop in. Last entry 2.30pm
Free entry / donation appreciated
Get one item per household fixed for free by local volunteers. The friendly fixers can repair household electrical items, bikes, clothes, toys, costume jewellery, woodwork, and more.
Saturday, 28 February 2026
Dance music: Remedy presents Red Greg and Irfan Rainy
Dom Polski, 18-20 Ashburnham Road, Bedford MK40 1DS @ 6pm – 1am
Tickets: £15
Remedy is back at Dom Polski with a cosmic musical journey, a space to dance, make friends, get to know one another and spread a message of love through community. Tickets cost £15 including light refreshments and a free cloakroom. Head to remedycollective.net and sign up for the invite list to get your ticket.
Saturday, 28 February 2026
Classical music: Bedfordshire Symphony Orchestra presents Wintry Classics
St Paul’s Church @ 7.30pm
Tickets: £20 / under 18s free
Bedfordshire Symphony Orchestra’s Wintry Classics features Glinka’s Ruslan and Ludmila Overture, Violin Concerto in D minor by Sibelius and Brahms’ Symphony No. 1. The conductor is Bjorn Bantock and violin soloist Jakub Jakowicz.
Saturday, 28 February 2026
Comedy: Paul Sinha: 2 Sinha Lifetime
The Quarry Theatre @ 7.30pm
Tickets: from £18
Paul Sinha returned to the Edinburgh Fringe in 2025 after a dramatic 2023 that saw him booking a ticket to Edinburgh’s Royal Infirmary halfway through his run.
With no small debt to the NHS, Paul celebrated his 30th anniversary in stand-up last year and is not ready to exit the stage just yet.
Saturday, 28 February 2026
Live music: Congratulations
Bedford Esquires
Tickets: £12 / £20.99 (including CD)
Brighton art-rock quartet, Congratulations are a hall of mirrors party troop. They are devils and tarts in equal measure. They lock their horns and then spin round and round and round until a dizzy cacophony erupts.
Sugarcane hooks vs. slaughterhouse screams and they’re here to move you. Their debut album, Join Hands releases just weeks before this show and has been described as a “high-powered, fast-paced assault of unbridled, intensely groovy indie dance rock.”
Starting from Sunday, 1 March
Sport and social: Senior Badminton Sessions
John Bunyan Sports and Fitness, MK42 9TS @ 9am – 10am / 10am – 11am
Price: £6.15
The new season of Senior Badminton Sessions are a fun way to keep moving and meet new people; the perfect mix of light exercise, friendly competition and plenty of laughs.
Sunday, 1 March 2026
Live music: The Vinyl Frontier play the Sunday Afternoon Session
Bedford Esquires @ 5pm
Free entry
The Vinyl Frontier are back at Esquires playing New Wave/80’s covers.
Sunday, 1 March 2026
Poetry: Read Poets Society
Eagle Bookshop @ 7pm
Tickets: free but please book via the Place website
The Read Poets Society’s second monthly meeting of 2026 is on the theme of The News. These meetings take place at the Eagle Bookshop in St Peter’s Street.
Tuesday, 3rd March 2026
Wellbeing: Bedford Mindful Embankment Walk
Meet outside the front of Swan Hotel @ 6.15pm
Free / just turn up
Enjoy a mindful walk along Bedford’s beautiful Embankment, based on meditation and mindfulness techniques. This is a safe space and community for everyone. Monthly walks all year round.
Monday, 3 – Saturday, 7 March 2026
Theatre: Waiting for Godot by Samuel Beckett
Sharnbrook Mill Theatre @ 7.30pm
Tickets: £18
The multi-award-winning Sharnbrook Mill Theatre presents Waiting for Godot, a fast-paced tragicomedy packed with heartfelt, tender, and touching moments. It starts with two men waiting by a lonely tree, their conversation spinning between the tragic, the comic and the absurd.
What are they waiting for, will they or won’t they ever arrive and what does it all mean? Profoundly funny and endlessly thought-provoking, this iconic play invites you on a journey into the heart ofhuman existence and the endless wait for answers.
Tuesday, 3 March 2026
Classical music: Lunchtime recital
St Paul’s church, St Paul’s Square @ 1pm
Free with retiring collection
Step into the beautiful surroundings of St Paul’s church to enjoy a free lunchtime performance by violinist, Karolina Csathy.
Tuesday, 3 March 2025
Film: Bedford Film Society presents Radical
University of Bedfordshire, Polhill Avenue
Tickets: Annual membership £70 / day member £5
Sixth-grade students at Jose Urbina Lopez Elementary are among the worst performing students in Mexico, with their world one of violence and hardship, not possibility.
It might seem like a dead end, but it’s the perfect place for new teacher Sergio Juarez to try something different.
Tuesday, 3 March 2026
Friends of the Higgins presents: Professor Paul Coldwell / ‘Ink, Paper, Chisel, Grain; The resilience of Woodcut from Durer to the present‘
St Andrew’s Church Hall @ 7.30pm
Members: free / non-members: £10
Join Professor Paul Coldwell, author of the forthcoming book – ‘Ink, Paper, Chisel, Grain; A Remarkable History of Woodcut’ for this illustrated talk exploring how artists have used the process of woodcut to shape their thinking and visualise their ideas. Paul will delve into the way artists have found ways to make such an ancient process new and relevant through to the 21st century.
Paul is a practicing artist and Emeritus Professor at UAL. His practice includes prints, book works, sculptures, and installations. He has exhibited widely and his work held in numerous public collections. He is on the editorial board of the journal Print Quarterly and has written extensively on printmaking including on, Banksy, Kentridge, Moore, Morandi and Rego. His new book on woodcuts will be published by Penguin in September
***Special offer for guests and visitors. Free entry to the talk and £10 discount if you take out Friends’ membership running from now to September 2026***
Thursday, 5 March 2026
Quiz: Esquires’ monthly music quiz
Bedford Esquires @ 8pm
£2 per person/maximum of six per team
Head to Esquires for their monthly music quiz on the first Thursday of every month. Teams of up to six people compete in the quiz featuring music from the 50s to the present. Cash prize for the winning team.
Friday, 6 March – Thursday, 19 March 2026
Exhibition: BLOOM! by Mo Lea
The Arc, Howard Street @ 9am – 5pm (Mon – Sat) 10am – 3pm (Sun)
Free
Brighten up your day with a visit to this colourful exhibition of large flower pictures at ‘The Arc’ by artist Mo Lea. The private view is on Thursday, 5 March, when you will be able to enjoy a free glass of prosecco as you stroll amongst the blooms.
This exhibition is a fundraiser for the Centre for Women’s Justice.
Friday, 6 March 2026
Art & culture: Bedford Art Society Meeting
Putnoe Heights Church, MK41 8EB @ 7.15pm for 7:30pm start
Matt Waruszynski will be demonstrating how to create a pencil portrait
Contact Jean Paterson on 01234 307210 or bedsartsociety.co.uk for further information.
Friday, 6 March 2026
Live music: The Cords
Bedford Esquires @ 7.30pm
Tickets: £12
C86 indiepop sensations The Cords will be appearing at Bedford Esquires this month. Tipped for big things in 2026, the teenage sisters released their absolutely ace self-titled debut LP earlier this year to universal acclaim and will be supporting The Charlatans on their upcoming UK tour.
Friday, 6 March 2026
Live music: eXTC
Bedford Esquires @ 7.30pm
Tickets: £25
XTC’s legendary drummer, Terry Chambers, is back on the road with his band EXTC (named and approved by XTC frontman, Andy Partridge).
Emerging out of the post-punk and new-wave explosion of the late 70s, XTC experienced global success touring with the likes of The Police and Talking Heads. Sadly, their legions of loyal fans would be left in limbo when in 1982 XTC stopped touring, becoming a studio-based entity.
EXTC were formed in 2019 by XTC’s drummer Terry Chambers, performing classic XTC material such as Making Plans For Nigel, Senses Working Overtime, Mayor of Simpleton, Generals and Majors, Sgt. Rock (Is Going To Help Me), Love on a Farmboy’s Wages and many more.
Saturday, 7 March 2026
Creative community: Bedford Artists’ Social
Albero Lounge (upstairs), Riverside Square @ 10.30am – midday
Free to attend
A regular informal gathering of like-minded visual artists to network, share aspirations and chat. There will be information on the community art gallery project, too and how you can get involved.
Saturday, 7 March 2026
Walking: North Bedfordshire Ramblers’ weekly walk
Morning Ramble meeting place: Cranfield Community Centre, MK43 0FZ @ 10am
Afternoon walk meeting place: Wootton Village Hall, MK43 9EU @ 1.30pm
The moring ramble is a leisurely five-mile exploration of Marston Thrift, while the afternoon walk is along the John Bunyan Trail to Longcroft Spinney (6.5 miles).
Please bring a drink, snack or lunch as the group always stops for a break. Check out the North Bedfordshire Ramblers’ excellent website for further information.
Saturday, 7 March 2026
Theatre: A Walk in the Park
The Place Theatre @ 7.30pm
Tickets: from £16
70% of women in the UK have experienced sexual harassment in public. Meanwhile, a social media poll finds that, in a hypothetical world without men for a day, the overwhelming majority of women said they’d use the opportunity to go for a walk alone after dark.
Taking these findings as a starting point, A Walk in the Park is a participatory performance combining authentic conversations, startling statistics and choreographed movement to create an atmospheric exploration of what it can feel like to walk alone in the dark. The performance ends with an invitation to the audience to leave the space together and walk through a nearby park or green space.
Audience members are free to participate as much or as little as they wish.
Saturday, 7 March 2026
Live music: Blender presents – International Women’s Day
Bedford Esquires @ 7.30pm
Tickets: £10
An International Women’s Day special lands at Esquires this Saturday, courtesy of Blender and self-styled alt rockers A Void will be bringing their DIY punk aesthetic fuelled by Boursin Cheese and pickle juice.
Yes, they hail from Paris, France, citing influences from Sonic Youth to Charles Aznavour and their new single ‘Fish in Your Pocket’ is out now, available just about everywhere. The band will come armed with acoustic guitars for this one, as they have lost the drummer under the fish head and are currently seeking a new one… could it be you? Check out their socials and get in touch if you think you’ve got what they need.
A Void will be supported by a cast of the area’s best girl bands: Kate Gore and The Screamers (ok, with a couple of chaps), a Jasmine Burns solo set, Apollo, making their Esquires debut and the Twice Over twins.
Sunday, 8 March 2026
Family fun: Spring Lambing Day
Manor Farm, Wilstead MK45 3DS @ 11am – 5pm
Tickets: £5/person / under 2’s free
Enjoy a day on the farm filled with adorable lambs and fun activities.
Tickets are £5 each and under twos are free. Available from Eventbrite or cash on the day.
Sunday, 8 March 2026
Live music: Generation 5pan play the Sunday afternoon session
Bedford Esquires @ 5pm
Free entry
Formed in 2017,the band members span three generations and perform music enjoyed by all.
At the Higgins Bedford
Exhibition: Noel Carrington: Nothing Need Be Ugly
The Higgins Bedford
Free entry
Curated by writer and publisher Joe Pearson, this exhibition tells the story of publishing’s unsung hero Noel Carrington (1895–1989). Schooled in Bedford with his sister Dora, Noel Carrington became one of the most influential figures in 20 th century design. Through the Puffin Picture Books and Country Life he commissioned, edited and published some of Britian’s most loved children’s picture books.
Read: Celebrating Bedford’s unsung publishing hero: Noel Carrington and Puffin Picture Books
He saw the genius in artists such as Kathleen Hale, publishing books about Orlando the Marmalade Cat and championed emerging artists such as Hilary Stebbing. With Eric Ravilious, Edward Bawden and Mervyn Peake he commissioned books such as ‘High Street’, ‘Life in an English Village’ and ‘Captain Slaughterboard’.
Through beloved children’s books, forgotten gems and original artwork this exhibition will take Noel Carrington out of the footnotes and into the spotlight.
Family fun: Cardboard Clues – murder at the movies
The Higgins Bedford until 12 April
£25/team
Become a detective and unravel a series of curious, whimsical mysteries in your local museum.
Scour the Higgins Bedford to discover hidden clues and ‘cardboard’ characters, who could be suspects, witnesses or victims, guided by the Cardboard Clues app.
Connect the dots in the stories across the museum and test your wits and problem-solving skills. Perfect for families, friends, and curious minds looking for a unique experience in a fun setting.
Exhibition: Edward Bawden – Printmaker
The Higgins Bedford until 26 April
Free entry
Take a trip to the Higgins Bedford to explore the Edward Bawden Printmaker exhibition, which celebrates Bawden’s remarkable legacy as ‘The Master of the Linocut’ and offers visitors a chance to delve into his innovative techniques and artistic achievements.
At the Panacea Museum
Permanent exhibition: Discover the amazing story of a unique religious community
Panacea Museum, 11 Newnham Rd @ Thursday – Saturday, 10am – 4pm
Free entry
This fascinating hidden gem of a museum tells the story of the Panacea Society – a secretive Christian group formed in the early twentieth century that created its own ‘Garden of Eden’ in the centre of Bedford.
The Panacea Museum is located across several Victorian buildings that formed the community’s headquarters. It tells the story of the Panacea Society and other similar religious groups.
As featured on BBC Radio 4’s Mark Steel’s in Town.
Every Tuesday
Community: Tuesday Chess Café
The Pavilion in the Park @ 2pm – 4pm
Free
If you’re a keen chess player or have always wanted to learn, then the weekly chess cafe at the Pavilion in the Park is for you.
Players meet every week and there’s no membership, no fee – just turn up. All you need to do is buy a coffee to support the venue. Any standard, from complete novice to Grand Master, welcome.
