Battersea Arts Centre is putting on a screening of The Snowman and the Snowdog with a live orchestra on 21 November, and the audience it has been designed for is dogs. There is a hard cap of fifty-five of them.
Paws at the Pictures is billed as a world first, and on the evidence nobody has done this particular combination before: a professional orchestra, a Christmas film, and a room full of dogs who have their own tickets.
It comes from Carrot Productions, who are the world’s leading performer of The Snowman with live orchestra and have done the same for Wallace and Gromit and Shaun the Sheep. General sale opened on 18 September.
What is actually on
The Snowman and the Snowdog with the orchestra playing live underneath it, the premiere of a new piece called The Great Dog Medley, and an audience singalong of The 12 Dogs of Christmas. There is also a short film shot behind the scenes at Battersea, featuring one of their dogs.
Doors open early so there is time for the dog stalls and the Paws & Pours bar, which serves both species. Afterwards the musicians, who will be dressed as dogs, stay for photographs alongside the Snowman and Snowdog costume characters.
The rules, because there are rules
Fifty-five dogs per performance, and every dog needs its own ticket. Seating is unreserved and first come first served, and larger breeds are asked to sit in the aisles. Full welfare and etiquette guidance goes out to ticket holders beforehand, and it was written with advice from Battersea Dogs and Cats Home rather than invented by a producer.
Twenty per cent plus VAT of every ticket goes to Battersea, and one hundred per cent of every stall fee. Laura Alwen, their rehoming and welfare manager, makes the point that a portion of each ticket goes directly to the dogs and cats in their care.
The bit that will get you
Owners are invited to send in photographs, drawings and paintings of their pets, including ones who have died, and Carrot will put as many as they can on the big screen before and after the show. The deadline is 9 November and submissions go to Carrot directly.
Rachel Whibley, who runs Carrot Productions, says nobody quite knows what it will feel like when everyone settles and the music starts, which is an unusually honest thing for a producer to say about their own premiere.
The London x London Take: This could have been a cynical bit of pet-economy programming and it is very clearly not, because the welfare guidance came from Battersea rather than from a marketing department and the dog cap is low enough to cost real money. Book it if you have a dog who is genuinely fine in a crowded room, and do not book it to find out whether they are. Fifty-five tickets per performance will not last, and the thing to do today is not buy a ticket but send in a photograph, because the 9 November deadline will go past while you are thinking about it and the gallery of dogs who are no longer here is the part of this that people will still be talking about afterwards.
Need to know
- What: Paws at the Pictures, The Snowman and the Snowdog with live orchestra
- Where: Battersea Arts Centre, Lavender Hill, London SW11 5TN
- When: Saturday 21 November 2026
- Dogs: Maximum 55 per performance, each needs its own ticket. Larger breeds in the aisles. Seating unreserved
- Booking: bac.org.uk
- Pet gallery: Send photographs, drawings or paintings to Carrot Productions by 9 November
- Supporting: Battersea Dogs and Cats Home, 20% plus VAT of each ticket and 100% of stall fees
More to do with a dog in tow in our guide to London’s dog-friendly restaurants, and more of the season in London at Christmas.
