The Wild History of A.W.T.P

Alice’s Wicked Tea Party from Pub-Born Pandemonium to Dorset’s Most Daring Alternative Music Festival

Welcome to the surreal saga of Alice’s Wicked Tea Party -Dorset’s premier alternative music festival for lovers of the extraordinary, the unconventional, and the gloriously weird.

It all began at the Cross Keys Inn, where a band of beautiful misfits gathered, drawn together by pounding beats and a need to escape the beige. At the centre of it all was one mad visionary: Shaun Histed-Todd (aka Snuffers), a man possessed by a relentless love for alternative music and unshakable dreams of a different kind of festival.

The Birth of Alice’s Wicked Tea Party an Alternative Wonderland

From those first chaotic nights, Alice’s was never just a festival — it was a movement. A place where subcultures collided, creativity exploded, and no genre was off-limits. Shaun created a sonic haven for punks, goths, ravers, rockers, steampunks, and dreamers who refused to colour inside the lines.

2017: Into the Rabbit Hole

In 2017, the event levelled up — taking residence at Knoll Farm in Wareham, Dorset. This move transformed AWTP into a full-blown alternative festival experience under open skies. Here, the magic took root. Fields filled with fire-breathers, poets, and sonic prophets. Bands howled. Lights warped reality. And the underground music scene found its home.

AWTP became more than a music event. It became a community. A family of creative renegades and musical outlaws dancing in defiance beneath the Dorset moon.

The Soundtrack of Madness

Over the years, Alice’s Wicked Tea Party has hosted a stellar lineup of genre-defying legends:

These acts don’t just play — they unleash. Every set is a ritual. Every note, a rebellion.

A Festival Like No Other

What makes AWTP truly unique is its commitment to giving a stage to the alternative underground. Here, the unorthodox thrives. The experimental is celebrated. And independent music culture is pushed into the spotlight where it belongs.

With a sonic spectrum covering post-punk, goth, industrial, electronica, garage rock, art-punk, gypsy blues, and everything in between, Alice’s Wicked Tea Party offers a genre-bending festival experience unlike anything else in the UK.

Join the Madness

Whether you’re a returning creature of the night or a first-time wanderer down the rabbit hole, Alice’s Wicked Tea Party invites you to dance, scream, stomp, and sparkle. This is your wonderland, your tribe, your soundscape.

Follow the drumbeat.
Wear your weirdness loud.
And join us in writing the next chapter of Dorset’s most daring music festival.