The Jane Austen Festival is pleased to announce we will be again holding a Christmas Ball in 2026.

On Saturday 12th December 2026 the Jane Austen Festival will be holding:

The Holly and the Ivy Yuletide Regency Ball

Saturday 12th December, 2026
The Pump Rooms, Bath, UK
20:00- 00:00

Tickets: £165, to include a two-course dinner and a welcome drink.
Dance workshop: 14:00- 15:30 - £10 in the Percy Community Centre, Kings Street, Bath - purchase together with your ball tickets.

Tickets will go on sale at 13:00 GMT on Thursday 29th January 2026.

Please keep reading to make sure you have all the relevant information ready when booking

Don your Regency finery, with a nod to our “The Holly and the Ivy” theme if you wish, and join us for an evening of dancing and dinner.

Tickets will include a welcome drink, followed by a two-course, sit-down dinner, and a traditional negus drink toast to our favourite author. The Regency dancing will be led by the Jane Austen Dancers, with live music from Beau's Band. This Ball is a costumed mandatory event and we request that all ladies and gentlemen dress in the style of the Regency or late 18th Century period.

A Pre-Ball Dance Workshop will be held in the afternoon before the Ball. It will run 14:00 - 15:30 in the Percy Community Centre on New King Street in Bath. This workshop is exclusively for those attending the Yuletide Birthday Ball, it's the perfect chance to learn and practice your Regency dancing moves ready for the ball in the evening. 
Please be aware that, due to venue capacity, we cannot accommodate all ball participants at the dance workshop.

Tickets for the Dance Workshop are not sold separately, please select either the
Yuletide Ball only Ticket £165
or the
Yuletide Ball & Dance Workshop ticket £175
at the checkout

- These tickets will be offered straight to general sale, on a first-come, first-serve basis. Festival Friends will not receive priority booking on these tickets. Please be aware that we are expecting high demand for these tickets.

- The maximum number of tickets you can purchase per transaction is 4, so if you are a larger group, it may be a good idea to have multiple people booking 4 tickets at the same time.

- We advise that you have your preferred payment method set up and ready to go on your device before tickets go on sale, to avoid any delays. Apple or Google Pay historically has been the fastest way to avoid delays caused by banking approvals and verifications.

- Please also note: For our Regency Balls under 14s are not permitted inside the event venue, and attendees aged 14 - 18 must have their own ticket and be accompanied by a Regency costumed adult who also has their own ticket.

So you are ready to book with all Regency haste, please have ready the following information:

• Each ticket holder’s name
• Their choice of an alcoholic or non-alcoholic welcome drink
• Their dinner choice from:

Meat dinner choice
Smoked salmon, gin and maple glaze, pea cress, red cabbage slaw

Followed by

Rosemary braised Dorset lamb, roast butternut, smoked garlic green beans, redcurrant jus

Vegetarian dinner choice 
Cauliflower and chestnut soup, Cropwell Bishop Stilton scone (vegetarian)

Followed by

Wild mushroom and black truffle tatin, wilted spinach, deep fried leek, Parmesan (vegetarian)

• Any further dietary requirements
• Seating preferences: Tables for dinner seat 10 people each, and we will try our best to accommodate all requests. All group bookings will automatically be sat together.

Regency costume is mandatory at all our balls. So, we look forward to admiring your Regency finery, and spotting any references to the festive theme with which you wish to embellish your outfits!

We also wish to inform our visitors for this event that the Bath Christmas Markets will be finishing on this weekend, so the city centre, parking and any public transport is likely to be very busy!

*All Jane Austen Festival tickets are non-refundable. 

If the Yuletide Ball is sold out with a waiting list, you may contact the Festival if you would like to re-sell your ticket. However this MUST be done through the Festival, we will not accept any tickets for events that have been sold on separately.

If the Festival does manage to re-sell your ticket you will be refunded, minus a 10% per ticket administrative charge.