Hundreds attend the launch of Chiswick's favourite fortnight
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Hundreds of people attended the opening of Green Days art and craft fete, yesterday sat) at the start of the Bedford Park Festival. The festival was launched by BBC foreign correspondent and local resident Fergal Keane who praised Chiswick as "an extraordinary community" and said he felt privileged to be able to live here.
Pic Ian Wylie.Fergal Keane and vicar Rev Kevin Morris
Fergal, whose charity Msaada, which helps people in Rwanda, is one of the St Michael & All Angels Church chosen charities, praised the organisers of the community festival.
He praised the community spirit of Chiswick and the efforts of the organisers of the Festival and said; "This is an extraordinary community and I am privileged to live here and to be able to raise my children here".
Fergal will also be leading the Poetry Evening on Tuesday June 16 th, one of several events at this year’s Festival commemorating WB Yeats.
Pic Ian Wylie
The Green Days weekend included a bandstand with live music and entertainment, fairground rides and games, food & drink, a craft fair with 20 exhibitors offering a wide selection of high-quality craftworks , many different types of stalls, competitions and a Cycle Zone , which has cycling advice, free bike maintenance and police security marking, as well as bikes from Woolsey of Acton and Brompton.
For children, there was a five-a-side football tournament and a fancy dress competition (theme: Alice in Wonderland and Alice Through the Looking Glass), as well as face painting, games and activities in the children’s corner.
Having fun at the fete - Pic Ian Wylie
Competitions over the weekend included the Great Green Days Bake-Off, for which local bakers submitted cakes - judged by the Guardian’s Allegra McEvedy - and then sold on the refreshments and cakes stalls, in aid of the Festival charities; the new Jam and Chutney Making Contest judged by Natalie Bayliss (founder of Turnham Green Ethical Hampers) and Lucy McDonald (Crumbs Food), the Win-A-Meal competition, the High-Roller-Tombola and the Champagne Lottery. The Photographic Exhibition and Competition will be on display in St Michael & All Angels Parish Hall throughout the weekend.
'Chiswick's favourite fortnight culminates in the Festival Mass at St Michael & All Angels Church and the Bedford Park Open Gardens on Sunday 28 June 2015.
Tickets for all events are now on sale at the Festival’s website: www.bedfordparkfestival.org
The Festival is proud to present two new plays this year. Fondly Remembered by Gareth Armstrong stars five distinguished actors - Frank Barrie, Lucinda Curtis, John Griffiths, Josie Kidd and Philip York – in a wickedly funny comedy full of revelation, rediscovery and revenge. It will play at the Tabard Theatre for 5 performances from 17-20 June. Tim Waller’s new comedy, Cast Aside, is about love, loneliness and the roles we play in the world of show-business.
St Michael & All Angels
The Festival will be celebrating the 150 th birthday of WB Yeats with 3 events: a Poetry Evening with Fergal Keane; a WB Yeats Anniversary Lecture by poets Cahal Dallat and Anne-Marie Fyfe and a WB Yeats Literary Walk with poet, musician and Radio 4 reviewer Cahal Dallat.
Other events in the Festival include: an Oscar Wilde Evening with Gerard Logan performing The Ballad of Reading Gaol followed by Andrew Maud’s sensitive reading of The Happy Prince; Award-winning author and BBC producer Deborah Cadbury discussing her acclaimed new book Princes at War about George VI and the Duke of Windsor; Torin Douglas interviewing LBC’s Beverley Turner about her new radio show, her Blooming Bunch ante-natal class, life with James Cracknell and her love of Chiswick; and in conjunction with the Chiswick Picturehouse, we are hosting private pop-up screenings of sing-a-long Frozen and the award-winning film Pride.
London Welsh Male choir- pic by John Downing
Musical highlights, for a wide range of tastes, include: Bibby Piano Duo: Midsummer Madness are joined by Carole Boyd and John Rowe (Lynda Snell and Jim Lloyd from The Archers) for a recital full of delights and surprises, including works by Shakespeare, Mendelssohn, Walton and Willy Rushton; The London Welsh Rugby Club Male Voice Choir with their unique sound that thrilled a worldwide audience at the London Olympics closing ceremony; Jazz on a Summer’s Night - a fabulous evening of jazz favourites by The Denis Smith Trio and featuring the vocals of Vanessa Smith; The London Tango Quintet Concert Supper with five musicians including celebrated violinist David Juritz and accordionist Milos Milivojevic ; A Night At The Opera with Milly Forrest and her colleagues from the Royal Academy of Music; the Festival Mass with Mass no. 2 in E minor by Bruckner; and a variety of other concerts.
Children and family events include: a Children’s Morning: Star Wars Epic Yarns with book reading, felt craft and lightsaber action; and a private pop-up screening for a Family Sing-A-Long to the award-winning film Fnroze
The Bedford Park Festiival Friday 12 June – Sunday 28 June 2015
31 events over 17 days
See www.bedfordparkfestival.org for full event and booking details
Regular Festival favourites include the Bedford Park Summer Exhibition, showcasing more than 100 works by local artists; Artists at Home, in which over 50 local artists and craftworkers display their works; the Photographic Exhibition and Competition, the Bedford Park Walk and the Bedford Park Open Gardens.
The Bedford Park Festival is run by St Michael & All Angels Church, with the active support of dozens of local people and businesses. It was set up in 1967 to foster a sense of community, celebrate the arts, and raise money for urgent repairs to the Church. Since then it has raised hundreds of thousands of pounds for charities.
This year the Festival will raise money for St Michael’s Organ and Parish Rooms Appeal, Msaada which helps restore dignity to the forgotten victims of the Rwandan genocide, The Upper Room who feed and support the community in need in West London and The Mulberry Centre in Isleworth, which provides information, advice and support to all those affected by cancer.
June 5, 2015