Westben Performing Arts Theatre

Westben is a 400-seat barn theatre on a working farm just outside Campbellford, set among meadows and orchards. The building is a beautifully proportioned timber-frame structure with hand-cut beams and roll-up walls that open onto the surrounding pasture during summer concerts. The acoustics are widely admired, and many touring musicians make a point of returning.

The summer festival runs from June to August and mixes classical, jazz, folk, world music and Canadian songwriters. Audiences arrive early and picnic on the grass before performances. There is also a small year-round programme of indoor concerts in a separate winter venue. Westben gives Campbellford a cultural draw out of all proportion to the town's size.

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A story
Brian and Donna Finley, both classical musicians, built the timber-frame barn theatre on their family farm in 2000. They wanted a concert hall with the acoustic warmth of wood and the open feel of the Ontario countryside — and a place where the walls could be opened to the fields beyond.

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