PLAY! is a week-long, annual festival of arts presented by the School of Performing and Digital Arts, showcasing some of the best and most innovative music, film, and theatre at Royal Holloway

PLAY! Festival returns bigger and better than ever, showcasing the very best of music, film, and theatre at one of the UK's highly-ranked arts faculties, with events curated and performed by the staff and students of Royal Holloway. With pop-up recitals, film screenings, cross-arts collaborations, jazz and music theatre gigs, talks and recital-lectures, new music from across the UK, plus the year's largest orchestral event, PLAY! offers a bundle of exciting events for all. 

This year's festival will take place between Sunday 8 June 2025 to Friday 13 June 2025, in venues across campus.

Get involved

Applications are now open for students and staff at Royal Holloway's School of Performing & Digital Arts to propose an event for PLAY! Festival 2024. To complete our short application, please visit this webpage or visit this webpage for general festival information (links embedded).

Applications for PLAY! event proposals close at 12.00pm on Monday, 5 May 2025. 

What's On

Our FREE festival events will be available to view from Monday 12 May 2025. To find out what's on, please visit our events page. 

All of our festival events are free entry for all, however some may require you to book in advance. Please refer to a given event page for full information.