Joseph at the Central Theatre 7 to 10 October, Dockyard ghost tours, Halloween at Eastgate House and four Gills home games: Medway's dated diary to 7 November.

October in Medway is a theatre month and then a ghost month. The Central Theatre in Chatham has a show most nights, with Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat from Wednesday 7 to Saturday 10 October and a Crown Ballet double bill of The Nutcracker and Swan Lake on Sunday 11th. From the middle of the month the Historic Dockyard, Fort Amherst, Eastgate House, the Guildhall Museum and Rochester Castle all turn to Halloween, and most of that runs through half term, which is 24 October to 1 November here. Gillingham play four home games at Priestfield before the end of October.

Everything below comes from the organisers’ own listings, read on 28 September 2026: Medway Tickets Live, the council’s box office for the Central Theatre; Visit Medway, the council’s tourism site, for the council-run museums and the castle; and the Dockyard, the cathedral, the football club, Fort Amherst and parkrun from their own pages. Each entry links back to its source, so check it before you set off. For places open whatever the month, see things to do in Medway, and for the school holiday itself, our October half term page.

This week

  • Fin Taylor: The Pre-Emptive Comeback Special, Wednesday 30 September, 8pm, the Central Theatre, Chatham. Stand-up from the comedian behind the podcast Fin vs History, with special guests. £27.50 (Medway Tickets Live).
  • The Music of the Beatles, Wednesday 30 September, 7.30pm to 9.30pm, Rochester Cathedral. A tribute concert run by an outside promoter, WOW Events, not by the cathedral; ticketed (Rochester Cathedral). The cathedral opens to visitors from 12.30pm that day.
  • In conversation with Nicola Moorby, Thursday 1 October, 6pm (arrive from 5.30pm), the Commissioner’s House at the Historic Dockyard. Tate’s curator of historic British art on Turner’s obsession with the sea, tied to the Dockyard’s Turner exhibition. Free, no Dockyard ticket needed, but it must be booked (Historic Dockyard).
  • Medway River Lit: Photos from the Archives, Friday 2 to Friday 16 October, 10am to 5pm, the Namur Room next to the Mess Deck Restaurant at the Dockyard. Three years of the literature festival in photographs. Free, no booking (Historic Dockyard).
  • Thank You For The Music, Friday 2 October, 7.30pm, the Central Theatre. An ABBA tribute night. £28 and £30; smoke and haze effects are used (Medway Tickets Live).
  • Ghost Tours: The Ropery Complex, selected evenings from Friday 2 October to Saturday 7 November, the Historic Dockyard. A 90-minute torch-lit walk through the Ropery, over 18s only, £24, booked online and not covered by the annual Dockyard ticket (Historic Dockyard). The Dockyard shows the exact evenings at booking.
  • Community Climate Fair, Saturday 3 October, 10am to 1pm, The Venue, St John’s Church, 18 Railway Street, Chatham ME4 4JT. The council’s fair on climate-friendly things to do in Medway. Free (Medway Council).
  • Medway Fun Palace, Saturday 3 October, 11am to 4pm, Nucleus Arts Main Centre, 272 High Street, Chatham. Nucleus Arts’ free day of art and science for all ages, with a trail of free activities at the Pentagon Centre, Art Junction, Intra Arts and Sun Pier House. No booking (Historic Dockyard).
  • Gillingham v Newport County, Saturday 3 October, 3pm, MEMS Priestfield Stadium (Gillingham FC).
  • T.Rextasy: I Love to Boogie, Saturday 3 October, 7.30pm, the Central Theatre. The T.Rex tribute band marks 50 years of the song. £29 and £31 (Medway Tickets Live).
  • I, Paula Bonhoeffer, Saturday 3 October, 7.30pm to 9.30pm, Rochester Cathedral. A play with music by Scarlatti, Brahms, Schütz and Bach about the mother of the Bonhoeffer family, who lost five children to war and fascism (Rochester Cathedral).
  • Commissioner’s House: Open House, Sunday 4 October, the Historic Dockyard. The restored house opens all day, but only to annual ticket holders; tours and afternoon tea are booked separately (Historic Dockyard).

Next week

  • Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat, Wednesday 7 to Saturday 10 October, 7.30pm nightly plus a 2.30pm Saturday matinee, the Central Theatre. GDS Productions, with a youth choir from the Medway Academy of Performing Arts. £19.50 and £21.50, with concessions for seniors, students and under 16s (Medway Tickets Live).
  • Medway River Lit poetry workshop, Saturday 10 October, 1pm to 3.30pm, the Namur Room at the Dockyard. Free, but places are limited and booked through Medway River Lit (Historic Dockyard).
  • Nature Connects, Saturday 10 October, 5pm to 7.30pm, Rochester Cathedral. We Live Here, the cathedral and Medway Diversity Forum present music and spoken word about nature from different cultural traditions, then a Harvest Feast. £5 (Rochester Cathedral). The cathedral is shut to visitors until 2pm that day.
  • Ghost Tours: Ships & Slipways, selected evenings from Saturday 10 October (first tour 6.30pm) to Friday 6 November, the Historic Dockyard. The same 90-minute format as the Ropery tour, round the slipways and aboard the ships after dark, over 18s only, £24 (Historic Dockyard).
  • The Nutcracker, Sunday 11 October, 2pm, and Swan Lake, the same day at 7pm, both at the Central Theatre. Crown Ballet’s two touring productions on one Sunday. £29 and £31 for each (Nutcracker, Swan Lake).

Later in October

  • Dockyard Dementia Café, Monday 12 October, 1pm to 3pm, the Historic Dockyard. Tea, cake, singalongs and objects from the collections for people with memory loss and their carers. Free, and no Dockyard ticket is needed (Historic Dockyard). The next one is Monday 9 November.
  • Gillingham v Brighton & Hove Albion U21, Tuesday 13 October, 7pm, Priestfield (Gillingham FC).
  • The Wigmore Lectures: Kieran Poole, Shopping List Guy, Wednesday 14 October, 7.30pm, Wigmore Library, 208 Fairview Avenue, Gillingham ME8 0PX. The eco artist who makes murals from bottle lids and finds stories in thrown-away shopping lists. £5 (Medway Tickets Live).
  • Halloween Horrors: Operation Hysteria, 16 to 31 October, Fort Amherst, Dock Road, Chatham ME4 4UB. The fort’s strictly 18+ scare attraction, in its 43rd year. £25 to £40 on the Fort Amherst ticket portal, where the nights are listed; the date range is from Visit Medway. The fort also runs Face Your Fears for over 12s and Clown Chaos for 5 to 10 year olds in October (Fort Amherst).
  • UK Pink Floyd Experience, Saturday 17 October, 7.30pm, the Central Theatre. Songs from all 15 studio albums. £27.50 and £30 (Medway Tickets Live).
  • Halloween Scavenger Hunt, 17, 18, 24, 25, 27, 28 and 29 October, 10am to 5pm (last entry 4.15pm), Eastgate House, High Street, Rochester ME1 1EW. Follow the clues to the witches’ cauldron and win a badge. Included with admission: adult £7, child £3.50, family £17.10; no booking (Visit Medway).
  • Rochester Farmers’ Market, Sunday 18 October, 9am to 1pm, Blue Boar Lane Car Park, Rochester ME1 1PD (Kent Farmers’ Market Association).
  • Illegal Eagles: Hotel California, Sunday 18 October, 7.30pm, the Central Theatre. The tribute band’s 30th-year tour plays the album in full. £37 and £38.50; seats are limited, and restricted-view seats are sold only through the box office on 01634 338338 (Medway Tickets Live).
  • Gillingham v Port Vale, Tuesday 20 October, 8pm, Priestfield. Note the later kick-off (Gillingham FC).
  • Gillingham v Grimsby Town, Saturday 24 October, 3pm, Priestfield (Gillingham FC).
  • Yuck Yard: Barnaby Bilge’s Big Mess, 24 October to 8 November, the Historic Dockyard. A half-term trail around slimy “grime scenes”, with a live show, The Night Shift, at 11am, 1pm and 3pm until 1 November. Included in the Dockyard ticket, no extra booking (Historic Dockyard).
  • Halloween Trails at the Guildhall Museum, Saturday 24 to Saturday 31 October, 10am to 4pm, closed Sunday and Monday, High Street, Rochester ME1 1PT. Find the spooky objects to spell out a word. Included with admission: adults £5, children £1.10. Spider and ghost crafts run Tuesday 27 to Friday 30 October on the same terms (Visit Medway).
  • Castle Crumb Snatchers, Saturday 24 October to Sunday 1 November, 10am to 4pm, Rochester Castle, Castle Hill, Rochester ME1 1SW. Find the rats and the medieval food they are eating. Included with admission: adults £9.50, children £4.50, family £22.50, English Heritage members and under 5s free (Visit Medway).
  • Family Ghost Tours, Wednesday 28 October to Sunday 1 November, 5pm to 6pm, the Historic Dockyard. A torch-lit after-hours tour for younger ghost hunters; arrive 20 minutes early. The Dockyard’s page lists adults (16 and over) at £7.50 and children aged 9 to 15 at £15, so check the price at booking (Historic Dockyard).
  • Mel Brooks’ Young Frankenstein, Friday 30 October at 7.30pm and Saturday 31 October at 2pm and 7.30pm, the Central Theatre. Three Towns Theatre Company, one of Medway’s oldest amateur companies. £17 and £19; 12+ advisory (Medway Tickets Live).
  • An Evening of Classic Ghost Stories, Friday 30 October to Sunday 1 November, 5.30pm and 7pm, Eastgate House. £12.50 from TicketSource or 0333 666 4466; the council warns it usually sells fast (Visit Medway).
  • The Unexplained at Eastgate House, Friday 30 October to Sunday 1 November, 11am to 4pm (last entry 3.15pm). First-hand accounts of the odd things that have happened in the house. Included with admission, no booking (Visit Medway).
  • Railway Operating Days, Saturday 31 October and Sunday 1 November, the Historic Dockyard. The diesel locomotive Overlord runs through the site past the three ships; demonstration only, no passengers. Included in the Dockyard ticket (Historic Dockyard).

The Central Theatre has tribute and comedy nights on most other October evenings as well; the full list is on Medway Tickets Live.

November

  • Tubular Bells Live, Thursday 5 November, 7.30pm, the Central Theatre. Phil Toms and a 10-piece ensemble play Tubular Bells and the wider Mike Oldfield catalogue. £30 and £33 (Medway Tickets Live).
  • The Sound of the Movies, Saturday 7 November, 3pm, the Central Theatre. The City of Rochester Symphony Orchestra plays Star Wars, Jurassic Park, Indiana Jones and Shrek. £20, £25 and £29, under 18s £1 in every band (Medway Tickets Live).

Bonfire night and Remembrance have their own pages: Medway fireworks and Remembrance Sunday. Further ahead, see the Rochester Christmas Market, the Dickensian Christmas Festival, Mission Christmas at the Dockyard and the Medway pantomime.

Regular events

  • Great Lines parkrun, every Saturday at 9am, Great Lines Heritage Park, Brompton Road, Gillingham. A free 5k starting in the north-east corner of the park, opposite Medway Park. Parking in Marlborough Road is free for up to two hours (parkrun).
  • Gillingham Market, every Monday and Saturday from 9am, Gillingham High Street, with around 16 stalls. The council’s page gives the closing time as both 4pm and 4.30pm (Medway Council).
  • Rochester Farmers’ Market, the third Sunday of every month, 9am to 1pm, Blue Boar Lane Car Park, with 10 to 12 producers. The next after 18 October is 15 November (Kent Farmers’ Market Association).
  • In Turner’s Wake, to 15 November, the Historic Dockyard. Original Turner works on loan from Tate, including his Medway Sketchbook, shown with paintings by Jake Wood-Evans. Included in the Dockyard ticket (Historic Dockyard).

Getting there

The Central Theatre is on Chatham High Street, a short walk from Chatham station. Rochester Cathedral, the castle, Eastgate House and the Guildhall Museum are all within a few minutes of each other along Rochester High Street. The Dockyard warns that the walk from Chatham station takes 35 to 40 minutes; the visitor entrance is on Western Avenue. For car parks and charges, see parking in Medway; for rail, train times to London; and check roadworks and travel before a weekend trip.

This page is rewritten as organisers confirm new dates. Every listing was read from its organiser on 28 September 2026. Dates can change, so use the links before you travel. More in our What’s On section.

Send us your event

Running something in Medway? Email hello@medwaylive.co.uk with the date, time, venue, price and a photo. Listings are free, and we add them to this page and to the diary on our What’s On section.

Sources