Petersfield's panto is the Winton Players' Rapunzel: seven shows at the Festival Hall from 15 to 23 January 2027, on sale now. Times, tickets and parking.
Petersfield’s pantomime comes after Christmas, not before it. The Winton Players stage Rapunzel at the Festival Hall on Heath Road over two weekends, Friday 15 to Saturday 23 January 2027, and tickets are on sale now. Every date and time below is from the Festival Hall’s own box office, checked on 15 October 2026.
The quick answer
- What: Rapunzel, the Winton Players’ traditional family pantomime.
- When: seven performances, 15, 16, 17, 22 and 23 January 2027. Evening shows on the Fridays, two shows on each Saturday, one Sunday matinee.
- Where: Festival Hall, Heath Road, Petersfield, GU31 4EA.
- Tickets: on sale through the Festival Hall box office. All seven performances showed “good availability” on 15 October.
- Want a show in December? The Festival Hall has Santa Live! on 22 and 23 December. See below.
Every performance
| Day | Date | Curtain up |
|---|---|---|
| Friday | 15 January 2027 | 7pm |
| Saturday | 16 January 2027 | 1pm and 6pm |
| Sunday | 17 January 2027 | 2pm |
| Friday | 22 January 2027 | 7pm |
| Saturday | 23 January 2027 | 1pm and 6pm |
The hall’s listing files the run as “Theatre (Pantomime)” and names the Winton Players as the company (Petersfield Festival Hall). There is only one Sunday performance, the 2pm matinee on 17 January.
The story this year
The box office blurb sets it up: the King and Queen of Evergreen’s baby daughter is stolen by the wicked witch Gothel and her sidekick Waylon the Weasel. The search party takes eighteen years to find her, by which time Rapunzel is a “feisty, stroppy” teenager with impossibly long hair, stuck in a tower with no door. Her nanny Hilda, the adventurer Rudi O’Malley and Hilda’s son Max plan the escape, and the plot then takes in pirates, a shipwreck and “the peculiar Kingdom (or is it a Queendom?) of England-on-the-Wold”. The company calls it “a traditional family pantomime packed with adventure, laughter, larger-than-life characters and plenty of proper panto fun” (Petersfield Festival Hall).
Is it on this year? Yes, and here is why it is always January
The Winton Players were founded in 1947 and describe themselves as “a busy group performing two plays and one pantomime every year at the Petersfield Festival Hall”. Their juniors’ club stops each autumn because, in the group’s own words, “rehearsals for our Pantomime, start in October” (Winton Players, Winton Players juniors).
The pattern holds year after year. Last season’s panto was Jack and the Beanstalk, at the Festival Hall from 9 to 17 January 2026 (Shine Radio); the National Operatic and Dramatic Association reviewed the 10 January performance (NODA). The year before it was Robinson Crusoe, in 2025 (Winton Players).
The group’s autumn play, Agatha Christie’s Spider’s Web, is at the Festival Hall from 15 to 17 October 2026 (Winton Players).
Tickets and prices
Book through the Festival Hall’s online box office, which runs on TicketSource, from the What’s On page. The Winton Players also sell through the Town Visitor Centre inside the Festival Hall for their shows (Winton Players).
Prices: the box office shows them only once you pick a performance, and we could not read them on 15 October. This page will be updated with them. Do not rely on old listings: the prices quoted for earlier Winton pantos were for those years.
Parking and getting there
The Festival Hall has its own council car park on Heath Road, with 212 spaces. For a Friday 7pm show it is free: charges stop at 6pm. A Saturday matinee falls inside charging hours (three hours costs £2.90, the same as every town car park), and the Sunday matinee is free, because Festival Hall is one of the two council car parks with no Sunday charge. Our parking in Petersfield page has every tariff. If you are coming by road, check roadworks and travel the week before.
A Christmas show before Christmas
If the children want something on stage in December, the Festival Hall has Santa Live! on Tuesday 22 December (2pm and 5pm) and Wednesday 23 December (11am and 1.30pm). It is an hour-long touring family show built round Santa’s elf Muddles, with Christmas songs, and the hall says every ticket includes a photo with Santa afterwards (Petersfield Festival Hall). It is not a pantomime.
The nearest professional panto is at the King’s Theatre, Southsea, which has Jack and the Beanstalk from Saturday 5 to Thursday 31 December 2026, plus a separate adult panto on 28 and 29 December (King’s Theatre).
For Father Christmas visits around Petersfield, see our Father Christmas page; for everything else in the next six weeks, what’s on in Petersfield.
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