THERE will be concerts, a craft fair, a barn dance and two helpings of Shakespeare in the third week of the new-look Bromsgrove Festival.
Tomorrow (Saturday) sees The Women’s Institute Choir, made up of local groups, performs in Bromsgrove High Street at 2pm and, from 10am to 4pm at the meeting room at Waseley Hills Country Park, there will be a craft fair.
Stalls will be selling items made by members of the Waseley Hills Crafts Guild. Admission is free. Visit www.facebook.com/waseleyhillscraftsguild for more information.
On Sunday (June 29), Tenbury Teme Balley Band will perform in the Sanders Park Jubilee Bandstand between 2.30pm and 4.30pm. The event is free.
Also on Sunday, at 3pm, English song will be celebrated at Tardebigge Church, Church Lane.
Tenor Nicky Spence and pianist Simon Lepper will perform The Pity of War programme, including Britten’s Who Are These Children?, Finzi’s Farewell to Arms, Ed Bennett’s premiere of new work, Quilter’s Three Shakespeare Songs and Dankworth’s Sonnet 18 – The Compleat Works.
Tickets are £15 or £4 for full-time students and those registered unemployed. Accompanied children go free. Call 01527 577330 for tickets and visit www.celebratingenglishsong.co.uk for more information.
A free pre-concert talk at 2pm will be given by Roderick Swanston.
Sunday also sees a presentation by Prof Frances Spalding entitled John and Myfawny Piper and their work with Benjamin Britten given at Avoncroft Museum’s New Guesten Hall. It starts at 7pm and tickets, which are £7.50, include a free glass of wine or soft drink. Visit www.avoncroft.org.uk for more information or call 01527 831363 for tickets.
On Monday (June 30) at 7pm, Alan Ayckbourn’s Small Family Business at the National Theatre will be screened live at Artrix.
Man of principle in a corrupt world Jack McCracken is approached by a private detective armed with some compromising information, just moments after taking over his father-in-law’s business.
Jack’s integrity disappears as he discovers his extended family to be thieves and adulterers who have been looting the business from their suburban homes.
Tickets, which are £14 (£12 concessions) are available at www.artrix.co.uk or by calling 01527 577330.
The Turn of the Screw by Benjamin Britten, which celebrates English song, will be at Avoncroft’s Guesten Hall at 7pm on Monday (July 1).
The ghostly thriller is produced by installation artist Marina Sossi and Susie Self, with mime artists and singers from the Royal College of Music.
Tickets are £15 or £4 for full-time students and those registered unemployed. Accompanied children go free. They are available by calling 01527 577330 or 01527 872422.
Alastair Moseley (clarinet) and the Virr Quartet will be performing festive classics at Avoncroft’s Guesten Hall at 12midday on Wednesday (July 2). Lunch at 1pm follows the event.
Tickets, which are £10.50, include a light lunch and a glass of wine.
Tickets are available by calling 01527 577330, visiting www.artrix.co.uk or on the door.
An Acoustic Cafe takes place from 3pm to 5pm on Wednesday (July 2) at Plaza Coffee in Bromsgrove.
The event, featuring old and young musicians and poets of all ages, has been organised by Bromsgrove Folk Club and is free.
The Royal Shakespeare Company’s Henry IV Part 2 (12) will be screened at Artrix at 7.15pm on Wednesday (July 2).
Tickets, at £15, are available by visiting www.artrix.co.uk or by calling 01527 577330.
A day later – at 7pm on Thursday (July 3), an open air performance of William Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet will take place at Hanbury Hall.
Tickets for the romantic tale of the star-crossed lovers, which will be performed by The Lord Chamberlain’s Men, are £15 for adults, £9.50 for children and £39.50 for a family (two adults and two children).
Call 01527 821214 for more information or to book tickets.
Songstars and Friends will take to the stage at Bromsgrove’s Artrix at 7.30pm on Thursday (July 3).
Music will range from rock and pop to musical and theatre numbers.
Tickets, from Artrix, www,artrix.co.uk or by calling 01527 577330, are £6 (£4 concessions).
And, rounding off the week, next Friday (July 4), will be an Independence Day Barn Dance at Catshill Social Club, Meadow Road.
It runs from 8pm to 11pm, is organised by Bromsgrove Folk Club and will feature local band 5 Bar Gait.
Everyone is welcome, no experience is necessary, and tickets – available by calling 0121 476 5938 or 07828 716842 – are £5.
Alan Ayckbourn’s Small Family Business at the National Theatre will be screened live at Artrix on Monday (June 30). s
