Free for all

From lively seaside festivals to an outdoor circus, here's a guide to cultural events where you don't need to part with your hard-earned cash

Art
The permanent collections at many leading galleries are free to visit and they also often stage excellent talks, music and performances without charging admission. During March Tate Britain in London is hosting free talks on David Hockney's biggest work to date, Bigger Trees Near Warter, comprising 50 connected panels spanning 12m. Middle Earth aficionados will love Edge of the Wild, a free exhibition at Redesdale Hall, Moreton-in-Marsh, Gloucestershire, featuring Tolkien artists Ted Nasmith (above), Ruth Lacon, Jef Murray and Peter Pracownik, from 13 to 16 August.
www.tate.org.uk, www.adcbooks.co.uk

Blues
From 5 to 7 March blues fans can enjoy free entry to 40 gigs in 15 venues at the Swanage Blues Festival in Dorset. Events include daily open-mic spots, electric jam sessions, buskers and a gospel service.
www.swanage-blues.org

Book signings
Your local bookshop is a rewarding place for book signings, lectures and book clubs. Meet author Scott Hunter at Waterstone's Reading Oracle on 6 March, where he'll be discussing his new thriller, The Trespass, whose plot is partly set in the town. On the same date at Waterstone's Bluewater West in Kent, Sharon Osbourne will be signing copies of her debut novel, Revenge.
www.waterstones.com

Classical music
Music colleges frequently put on free concerts. Check out the Royal Academy of Music and the National Gallery where musicians from the Royal College of Music perform each Friday from 6pm to 7pm. Listen to free lunchtime music at the Royal Albert Hall whose Ignite programme features talented young ensembles. Churches often host free concerts, too.
www.ram.ac.uk, www.nationalgallery.org.uk, www.royalalberthall.com

Drama
Spot the stars of the future at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art (Rada) and the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art (Lamda). Rada puts on a range of free shows from play readings and open-mic nights to a variety of smaller literary, comedy and music events. Lamda shows are free but donations to the student hardship fund are gratefully accepted.
www.rada.org, www.lamda.org.uk

Festivals
Spring highlights include Truro's Art in the City Festival from 6 to 11 April. The theme this year is "big art" and large canvases will be placed in public sites around the city and painted by local artists, students and the community. The Norfolk and Norwich Festival from 7 to 22 May features Norfolk Open Studios, where more than 250 artists welcome the public into their studios. The 44th Brighton Festival takes place from 1 to 23 May with free events including street entertainment, live music and fireworks.
www.artsfestivals.co.uk, www.brightonfestival.org

Film
Love the movies? Free cinema is even better. Join a preview screening club and you can see big films before your friends. Thousands of tickets are available for some Hollywood blockbusters.
www.momentumscreenings.co.uk, www.seefilmfirst.com

Lectures
The Royal Society for the Encouragement of Arts, Manufactures and Commerce (RSA) offers talks by leading thinkers. Don't miss Red Tory, a talk by theologian Phillip Blond on 1 April or The Selfish Society, with author Sue Gerhardt on 23 April. Ted.com stages lectures at conferences around the world. The best are released online so you can listen to Al Gore get hot about climate change, Tim Berners-Lee on the Semantic Web and illusionist David Blaine on how he held his breath for 17 minutes.
www.thersa.org, www.ted.com

Literature
Every year there are more than 100 literary gatherings in the UK, bringing the best in new and established writers to a town or city near you. Events include lectures, readings and workshops, many of which are free. Highlights this year include Seamus Heaney at StAnza, Scotland's poetry festival in St Andrews from 17 to 21 March; and Philip Pullman at the Cambridge Wordfest from 9 to 11 April.
www.literaryfestivals.co.uk

Outdoor
London's Southbank offers a range of free events, with everything from jazz and classical concerts to workshops and theatre.  Look out for dates of outdoor film screenings projected on to the National Theatre Flytower. On 1 July, Watch This Space begins an annual festival of theatre, circus, music, dance, comedy and film. This year kicks off with Circus Space, the UK's premiere circus school, which will take up residency in Theatre Square for a week. Find out what's on at The Scoop, a sunken amphitheatre next to City Hall.
www.southbanklondon.com, www.morelondon.com

Pop and rock
Check out what's on at your nearest branch of HMV or your local independent record store where bands often play free in-store gigs. Danish pop band Alphabeat are playing live at HMV Newcastle on 4 March at 5pm while the John Moore Rock & Roll Trio featuring the Loose Moorelles will be gigging at Rough Trade East, London, on
5 March at 7pm (a free but ticketed event).
www.hmv.com, www.roughtrade.com

Television
Comedy TV shows such as My Family and QI are recorded in front of live audiences and it's easy to get tickets to them. But arrive early-having a ticket guarantees you a place in the queue but not entry.
www.bbc.co.uk/tickets

Theatre
From 17 to 19 March, the National Theatre of Scotland takes its latest work, Transform, to Aberdeen, having already visited nine other towns and cities. The performance features music, puppets and young people from the Dyce Academy, and was described by The Scotsman as "one of the finest pieces of youth project artwork Scotland has ever produced". The National Theatre in London has free exhibitions all year and offers pre-performance music in the foyer on Monday to Saturday evenings, lunchtime on Saturdays and some Sundays.
www.nationaltheatrescotland.com, www.nationaltheatre.org.uk

Workshops
Children will love free family workshops at Somerset House in London (left). Every Saturday from 2pm to 3.30pm you can spend time helping them to get creative with a range of activities from painting and model-making to fashion design and animation.
www.somersethouse.org.uk