Halloween behind bars and a huge stitching show lead Shepton’s week

Sponsored by the Bath & West Showground, home to some of Somerset's biggest events, shows and days out.

Shepton Mallet has a particularly full Halloween Saturday, with the Halloween Silent Disco and Hellblock - Halloween at Shepton Mallet Prison both making use of the former prison's naturally helpful atmosphere. Meanwhile, The Stitching4All Show reaches its final day at the Bath & West Showground. Screams, silent dancing and embroidery is quite a Saturday selection.

Saturday, 31 October begins in Glastonbury with the Kids Halloween Party at The King Arthur on Benedict Street. The Fellowship is hosting its Mini Monster Ball, with children welcome to arrive in fancy dress or simply turn up as they are. Games form part of the event and each child will receive a party bag when they leave. A Halloween event where the monsters are miniature and everybody gets a bag at the end sounds comparatively civilised.

Street families can also make the most of Get set for a spooktacular half-term at Clarks Village, which continues until Sunday, 1 November. Saturday's programme includes free craft activities from 11am to 3pm, pumpkin carving, complimentary face painting and Splat Play slime sessions running every 30 minutes between 11am and 3pm. Places for the slime sessions are limited and allocated on a first-come, first-served basis. There is also a Halloween version of the Mindful Monsters Trail. Slime, pumpkins and face paint should cover most conventional half-term requirements.

Shepton Mallet takes Halloween rather more seriously after dark with the Halloween Silent Disco at Shepton Mallet Prison. The strictly over-18 event offers two sessions, from 5pm to 7.30pm and from 8.30pm to 11pm. Guests can switch between three music channels while roaming scare actors and Halloween surprises appear around the former prison. There is also a fancy-dress competition and a bar, with tickets starting from £25. It is the sort of evening where dancing badly may be the least frightening thing happening around you.

Also continuing at the prison is Hellblock - Halloween at Shepton Mallet Prison, which runs until Sunday, 1 November. The 75-minute live-action horror experience uses actors, theatrical sequences, sound, lighting and interactive elements throughout the former prison. Organisers warn that it includes darkness, loud noises, flashing or strobe-style lighting, smoke, confined spaces, jump scares and disturbing scenes, so visitors should check the age restrictions and accessibility information before booking. Apparently merely being inside a former prison at Halloween was not considered quite enough.

Saturday is also the final day of The Stitching4All Show at the Bath & West Showground. The event brings together more than 100 exhibitors and more than 70 daily workshops, along with textile speakers, quilt displays, BBC Sewing Bee workshops and question-and-answer sessions, a DIY fashion show and the Embroidered Red Dress exhibition. It is a sizeable amount of thread, fabric and expertise to fit under one roof.

Over in Street, Waiting For Godot reaches the final performance of its run at Strode Theatre on Saturday. The in-house production follows Vladimir and Estragon as they wait for the mysterious Mr Godot in Samuel Beckett's classic play about time, memory and meaning. Anyone who has spent half term waiting for somebody else to decide what they want to do may find portions unexpectedly familiar.

Sunday, 1 November is the final day for Half Term Family Activities at The Bishop's Palace in Wells. Families can follow trails through the gardens, use a children's multimedia tour inside the Palace, make crafts and visit the Dragon's Lair play area. It is a useful last chance to extract something productive from half term before school bags reappear.

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Wells Art Contemporary also continues at Wells Cathedral through the week, running until 7 November. This year's exhibition, "For what is time?", includes 20 installations across the Cathedral and 100 artworks in the Cloisters. If the clocks changing has already caused enough confusion, an entire exhibition about time may either help enormously or finish the job.

Monday, 2 November brings the Royal Air Forces Association Mid-Somerset Branch November Meeting to Mendip Golf Club at Gurney Slade. Baz Hamblin will give a presentation entitled "The Gunpowder Plot", followed by a general branch meeting covering the Christmas lunch and the programme through to the March 2027 AGM. Lunch and drinks from the club menu and bar will follow. Members of the public who support the aims of the association are among those invited to attend.

Tuesday, 3 November moves into local history with Local History Illustrated Presentation at Chilcompton Village Hall. Richard Cooper-Knight will present "Death and Service", sharing stories uncovered through his research into First World War Commonwealth graves and the people named on local memorials. The talk runs from 7.30pm to 8.30pm and costs £5, with a raffle also available. Behind every carved name is a person and a story, and this evening is very much about bringing those stories back into view.

Also beginning on Tuesday is Art of Touch in Glastonbury town centre. The six-day training course is for women and focuses on learning deep-tissue massage through hands-on tuition. The course runs until Sunday, 8 November, with accommodation available as an option for those who need it. The supplied listing does not give a fixed daily timetable or price, so anyone interested should contact the organiser directly for those details.

Wednesday, 4 November brings Newark High School Orchestra 'Soup & Strings' Concert in St Cuthbert's Church to Wells. Sixty musicians from Newark High School Orchestra in Ohio will perform classical and traditional repertoire for string orchestra as part of an "Around the World" themed concert. Soup will be served from noon, with the music starting at 1pm. Handel's Royal Fireworks is among the pieces listed. A lunchtime concert with soup is exactly the kind of practical cultural arrangement November should probably encourage more often.

Longer-running events continue across the area too. Moments of Light remains at Dorothy House Hospice Care in Winsley until 31 December, while Group Soundscape with Helen Stillwell continues at Mells Barn on selected dates through December.

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