Wide range of arts and community events planned over the fortnight
The crowds at Green Days in 2022
|
May 5, 2024
This year’s Bedford Park Festival will be the 58 th and the fortnight will see an expanded range of events.
Tickets are now on sale for a programme which contains a wide range of concerts, talks, walks, film & theatre performances, exhibitions and open-air events from 7 to 23 June.
The two-day Green Days Fete & Craft Fair is the Festival’s opening weekend on 8 and 9 June and will feature the usual array of bands, refreshments and stalls.
Other highlights include a first chance to find out details of the Sanderson Design Group’s plans to move back to Chiswick including a launch of a “Bedford Park” collection of fabrics and wallpapers.
Arthur Sanderson set up his wallpaper factory in 1879 in Chiswick and the company is taking space refurbished Voysey House, Charles Voysey’s iconic office building in Barley Mow Passage, as its new headquarters. In ‘Homecoming: Sanderson, Voysey & Chiswick’ on Thursday 20 June , you’ll have the first chance to look inside and hear about the group’s ambitious plans. Tickets for this event are anticipated to sell out quickly.
The Chiswick Cinema will host its first Bedford Park Festival screening to mark the 50 th anniversary of Agatha Christie’s Murder on the Orient Express , starring Albert Finney as Hercule Poirot. It will be introduced by Andrea Carnevali of The Chiswick Cinema Film Club on Saturday 22 June. Tickets are on sale here.
This year the Festival is launching a series of concerts in St Michael & All Angels Church, and workshops in schools, to broaden local young people’s access to music. They will feature the period performance group Apollo’s Cabinet ; trumpeter Aaron Azunda Akugbo (Classic FM’s Rising Star nominee) & harpist Milo Harper; and violinist Elena Urioste & pianist Tom Poster of the award-winning #UriPosteJukeBox, which features classical gems and an interactive concert experience. Tickets are on sale for these and the other Festival events on TicketSource. This series has been enabled by a partnership with McVities whose parent company Pladis moved into Chiswick Business Park in 2021.
Other Festival highlights will include an interview with the Italian wine and travel writer Marc Millon; a birthday celebration of Chiswick’s Nobel Prize-winning poet WB Yeats, with guest speaker Jeremy Vine; and “The Royal Ballet in 60 Minutes” by Sarah Lenton of BBC Radio 3, at the Theatre at the Tabard. At the Theatre, the Festival will also include performances of ‘Fondly Remembered’ by Gareth Armstrong.
WB Yeats’ connections with Bedford Park will also be explored in a literary walk - Land of Heart’s Desire - led by Cahal Dallat, poet, broadcaster and founder of the WB Yeats Bedford Park Artwork Project; while the Festival’s longest-running event, the annual Bedford Park Walk will explore the area’s architectural and literary heritage led by Dr Pamela Bickley and John Scott.
Further extending the Festival’s musical range, the hugely popular ten-piece band Frank the Cat will perform vibrant versions of ‘60s, ‘70s and ‘80s soul, disco and fun covers; Danish/Hungarian organist David Bendix Nielsen will give a recital on the organ in St Michael & All Angels Church; and Festival favourites David Juritz, violin, Mark Viner, piano, and friends will perform Schubert’s Trout Quintet and Faure’s Piano Quartet No 1.
As well as the schools’ music workshops, events for children will include Building the St Michael’s Bug Church, to provide nesting sites and shelter for insects and wildlife in the church garden; a concert by the young choir The Choristers; and several events on Green Days weekend, where the Fancy Dress Competition, Children’s Corner and Turnham Green Treasure Hunt are all on the theme of The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe.
The Bedford Park Photography Exhibition is moving into St Michael & All Angels Church, where the photos will be displayed on the south wall, sharing the church with the Bedford Park Summer Exhibition of artworks in the north aisle. The exhibition is extended to a full week, from 8 – 14 June.
Profits will support St Michael & All Angels Church, which runs the festival as part of its mission of community outreach, and its three 2024 charities: The Upper Room, helping the needy in Shepherd’s Bush; Swinfen Telemedicine, which links specialist medical expertise to doctors and nurses in remote regions of the world; and Crosslight Chiswick, which provides face-to-face debt advice, together with money education and budgeting support to individuals and families in need.
Read more and book tickets at www.bedfordparkfestival.org.
Like Reading Articles Like This? Help Us Produce More This site remains committed to providing local community news and public interest journalism. Articles such as the one above are integral to what we do. We aim to feature as much as possible on local societies, charities based in the area, fundraising efforts by residents, community-based initiatives and even helping people find missing pets. We've always done that and won't be changing, in fact we'd like to do more. However, the readership that these stories generates is often below that needed to cover the cost of producing them. Our financial resources are limited and the local media environment is intensely competitive so there is a constraint on what we can do. We are therefore asking our readers to consider offering financial support to these efforts. Any money given will help support community and public interest news and the expansion of our coverage in this area. A suggested monthly payment is £8 but we would be grateful for any amount for instance if you think this site offers the equivalent value of a subscription to a daily printed newspaper you may wish to consider £20 per month. If neither of these amounts is suitable for you then contact info@neighbournet.com and we can set up an alternative. All payments are made through a secure web site. One-off donations are also appreciated. Choose The Amount You Wish To Contribute. If you do support us in this way we'd be interested to hear what kind of articles you would like to see more of on the site – send your suggestions to the editor. For businesses we offer the chance to be a corporate sponsor of community content on the site. For £30 plus VAT per month you will be the designated sponsor of at least one article a month with your logo appearing if supplied. If there is a specific community group or initiative you'd like to support we can make sure your sponsorship is featured on related content for a one off payment of £50 plus VAT. All payments are made through a secure web site. |
