Tickets
Advance booking
There are now only two ways to book: by post and (once general booking opens) by phone. [We are too small an organisation, valuing personal contact with our concertgoers, to have a facility for booking and paying via the internet; and we are abandoning, as too risky for concertgoers' card details, our system of e-mail booking forms.]
The new season’s brochure – including a booking form – goes first to our Patrons, then to our Members. Each group gains two weeks’ priority in which to book. The same brochure then goes to the rest of our mailing list, in time for general booking to open. You don’t however need a booking form to book, except in a priority period.
If you have opted to receive information by e-mail (see our Contact page), we shall e-mail you a warning that booking is about to open, but from 2014 onwards you will need a season brochure if you wish to book tickets during one of the priority periods.
Click here to access our leaflet about becoming a Member or Patron; the PDF file will either open as a new on-screen page or be downloaded to your computer, depending on your own browser settings or preferences.
Key dates 2013
Priority booking for Patrons: opened on Thursday 21 March (by post or e-mail only, using a booking form, during the priority period)
Priority booking for Members: opened on Thursday 4 April (by post or e-mail only, using a booking form, during the priority period)
General booking (by post or phone): opened on Thursday 18 April.
How to pay
For tickets bought in advance, use a credit or debit card to pay – a debit card if you can, as it costs us less per transaction than a credit card. [For safeguards about how we use your card data and other personal information, see our About page.]
There’s no need to provide an SAE if you book by post; instead, we charge £1 per transaction for advance bookings where we post you your tickets.
The Box Office (note new contact details)
The Box Office (01449-720151) is usually open between 1pm and 6pm Mondays to Saturdays and from 9am to 11am on concert days. Outside these times, or if Lillemor can’t take your call, leave a message: she will call you back as soon as possible. You can e-mail her at boxoffice@concertsatcratfield.org.uk or write to her at 5 Church Close, Creeting St Mary, Ipswich IP6 8NL.
Ticket availability
Once booking opens, this website has up-to-date information on tickets still available. Click on the name of an individual concert on the right-hand side of this page; or go to the main Concerts page and activate the drop-down menu under Concerts on the top bar above. By any of these routes, you’ll find the page for the individual concert/s you are interested in: this includes a regularly updated summary of the ticket situation.
Most £14.50 and £11 tickets for the whole season are usually sold during the first month after priority booking opens. If you are booking after that, it’s wise to check ticket availability for the concert/s you are hoping to attend before you contact the Box Office.
If the page for the concert you are hoping to attend says that all tickets are sold, there is a limited number of £8 rear nave tickets (with restricted view) available on the door: see On a concert day below.
Prices and location
Individual ticket prices are unchanged for 2013: £14.50 (nave), £11 (side aisles, chancel and altar) and £8 (all others). A season ticket for all our 2013 concerts offers six tickets for the price of five: £72.50 for £14.50 tickets, £55 for £11 tickets and £40 for £8 tickets.
All £14.50 and £11 tickets give a numbered seat or place in a pew, as do the small number of £8 tickets in the main nave and side aisles; but the rear nave £8 seats are unnumbered (the church normally opens for concertgoers by 2.30pm).
We welcome children aged 5 or over, if accompanied by at least one adult willing to ensure that they are not disruptive. Those younger are regrettably not allowed, however well-behaved. Anyone between 5 and 25, and a full-time student with a valid ID card from a university or college, may book an individual ticket at half-price.
Click here for a plan of the church, showing the location of seats at the different prices for 2013, if bought singly; the PDF file will either open in a new window or be downloaded to your computer, depending on your own browser settings or preferences.
The church is small enough (its maximum capacity is only 230 concertgoers) that the acoustic is good wherever you sit, but a row of stone pillars between the central nave and each side aisle limits the view from some side and many rear seats. Most of the central nave and side aisle seats are in wooden pews; most of the chancel, altar and rear nave seats are individual chairs (many new since 2009).
Spare tickets?
Tickets for Cratfield concerts are not normally returnable or refundable. However, if you have tickets which you cannot use and cannot pass on to a friend, please tell the Box Office on 01449-720151. As long as we know by, at the latest, the day before a concert, and if we otherwise have no tickets left in your price bracket, we may be able to sell yours to someone else.
If we can do so and you’d then like a refund, we shall organise this. If you had originally booked a season ticket, your refund for a ticket for one concert would be one sixth of the season ticket price you had paid. [You could instead treat the refund you would otherwise receive as a small gift to support Concerts at Cratfield.]
Lost tickets?
If you know you had tickets for a concert but can no longer find them, please phone the Box Office on 01449-720151 and let Lillemor know; she will normally be able to have duplicates waiting for you at the church.
On a concert day
By 9.30am on the morning of a concert, the page for that concert on this website will have been updated to reflect the latest position on ticket availability. If you are too late to book ahead, you’ll hear a recorded message on the Box Office phone number which will summarise the same information.
The Box Office won’t usually respond to phone calls after 11am on a concert day; but from 2.30pm onwards, you can buy any unsold or returned tickets at the church, paying in cash or by cheque (no card sales).
If you don’t yet have a ticket, please arrive at the church before 2.45pm. The Box Office table is just inside the church on the left.