Young performers rehearsing for ‘Annie Get Your Gun’ and ‘Bedford Park’s Got Talent’
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Green Days weekend: June 13th and 14th, Festival Mass and Bedford Park Open Gardens: Sunday June 28th. 
Twyford Gospel Choir, this year’s BBC Songs of Praise School Choir of the Year, will sing on Green Days weekend at the start of this year’s Bedford Park Festival. Its members – from Twyford Church of England High School in Acton - are among dozens of young performers who will take part in Chiswick’s biggest community event, starting on June 13th and 14th.
“We’re delighted to welcome the Twyford Gospel Choir back to Green Days” says Torin Douglas, co-ordinator of the Bedford Park Festival. “They performed brilliantly to win this year’s BBC senior school choir of the year competition and since then they’ve been in big demand - they even sang at St Paul’s Cathedral during the G20 summit of world leaders!”
The two-day Green Days fete takes place opposite Turnham Green tube station on Acton Green Common. It opens at 11am on Saturday June 13th with the children’s fancy dress parade (theme: Wild West 4) and includes a funfair, five-a-side football, children’s corner, and lots of refreshments.
There’ll also be a performance by the Arts Educational School in Chiswick – which trained stars such as ballerina Darcey Bussell, Will Young and Summer Strallen, who was chosen by Andrew Lloyd Webber to play Maria in the Sound of Music. Young performers from Chiswick Theatre Arts are also taking part in the Festival.
On Sunday afternoon, June 14th, there’s ‘Bedford Park’s Got Talent’, the Festival’s annual talent show for under-17s. A previous performer, dancer Daniel Pirie, performed on ITV’s Britain’s Got Talent last year. You can find out how to enter at www.bedfordparkfestival.org
That afternoon, the prizes will be presented in the Green Dads competition, organised by the ethical food company Turnham-Green.co.uk. Children must draw a picture or write a letter describing their father’s healthy eating choices. “We put children and young people at the heart of the Festival” says Torin Douglas. “One parent told us their sons think Green Days is the best time of the year after Christmas!”
Another Festival highlight will be Annie Get Your Gun, the children’s musical performed by the Junior Choir at St Michael & All Angels church, Bedford Park, which organises the Festival. That’s on Saturday June 20th, with a matinee on Sunday June 21st.
The Wild West theme is continued in the annual Treasure Hunt, which has just started in the shops of Turnham Green Terrace. Children can win a Disney goody-bag or a prize from Trotters, by finding all the Wild West pictures in 21 shop windows. It closes on Friday June 12th and they can pick up an entry form from Trotters at 84
Turnham Green Terrace.
Wild West 4 is also the theme of the children’s fancy dress parade, which opens the Green Days fete at 11am on Saturday June 13th. Children should meet at 10.30am at St Michael’s Parish Hall.
Later in the Festival there’s an art exhibition by children from Chiswick & Bedford Park Preparatory School in St Michael & All Angels Church.
This year’s Bedford Park Festival runs from June 13th to 28th and has lots of events for adults too! It’s raising money for two local charities, the Microloan Foundation and the Upper Room, as well as the organ project at St Michael & All Angels church. The full programme is at: www.bedfordparkfestival.org.
The 21 shops taking part in the Turnham Green Treasure Hunt are: Oxfam Bookshop, Zecca, Trotters, SweatyBetty, Snapdragon, Macken Brothers, Something Nice, Oliver Bonas, Sports Centre, Whitman & Co, Chiswick Cobblers, LA Menswear, Marmalade Jewellery, Mortimer & Bennett, Andreas Georghiou & Co, Covent Garden Fishmongers, Tots, The Natural Food Store, Theobroma Cacao, Melbury’s, Tops Haircutters.
Full Calendar of Festival Events
June 6, 2009