Dorchester Festival hosts a unique residency by Shedman – the writer and poet John Davies. Shedman’s home, a shed in the Abbey grounds, will be auctioned for festival funds. Help him explore the wonderful world of sheds by contributing your shed stories and memorabilia. Shedman is inspired by all things shed – garden sheds, bike sheds and railway sheds, shed antlers, skin and tears. Round Britain by Shed is one of his books in the making!

SHED ASSEMBLY DAY (SAD) and Shedwarming Thursday April 28th 2pm-4pm: If you’ve seen the film Witness you’ll know that raising a shed can help build a community! Come and witness a grown Shedman experience every known emotion and more, as he tries to assemble his self-assembly shed. Laugh till your knot holes pop! Then give him a hand! All assistance welcome! Followed by a short shedwarming and taster poetry session.

SHED THAT! Thursday 5th May 7- 9pm: An encouraging and supportive creative writing workshop for new and experienced writers, to trigger inspiration and generate poetic writing. Tickets £6

SHED YOUR FEARS! Saturday 7th May (10-5pm) & Sunday 8th May (11am-4pm): A rolling creative workshop, exploring the kaleidoscopic meanings of ‘shed’!

SAS DAY Saturday 7th May 10am-5pm: join the SAS for a day and be part of the Shed Appreciation Society – bring reminiscences, stories, photos, pictures, poems, postcards and anything else connected with sheds to build a shed-load of multi-media experience.

SHED QUEST Look out for Shedman locating and exploring some of the more amazing and unusual sheds around Dorchester in the days before the Festival. Alert him of any remarkable sheds at shedman@shedman.net. Shedman also hopes to connect with local writers and poets

‘What Wordsworth did for daffodils, John Davies does for sheds.’ Mark Lawson, Front Row, BBC Radio 4

Ticket Price:£7
Venue:Abbey Grounds
Date/Time:Thursday 5th May, 7.00pm