Newbury Spring Festival

Newbury Spring Festival 

7th-21st May 

Newbury Spring Festival is one of the most popular and successful music festivals in the South of England. Over the last 38 years the Festival has grown hugely in size and quality building up a reputation of international status. With dynamic programming, Festival Director, Mark Eynon attracts the very best from the classical, jazz and world music fields to perform in and around Newbury.

Presenting young artists and developing youthful audiences has always been a key part of the Festival and this year is no exception. Activities include Benjamin Grosvenor and others going into local schools to hold workshops for around 1,300 children, and giving the best emerging young musicians concert experience through the Young Artists lunchtime recital series, to which students are offered free tickets. The Festival’s own Sheepdrove Piano competition also showcases the breadth and wealth of international young musical talent drawn from all the major UK conservatoires.

The Festival prides itself on its reputation for presenting concerts in some glorious venues both in Newbury and the surrounding countryside. Great care is taken to tailor the right performance to the venue, whether it be an intimate recital at magnificent Highclere Castle or in the Long Gallery at Englefield House, top level choral concerts in Douai Abbey and East Woodhay church or a song recital in Ramsbury church. This year a new addition to the festival will be a gala performance of Rigoletto at Combe Manor, set in the rolling Berkshire hills, and staged performances of Bach’s Coffee Cantata in St Nicolas Church Hall. In the centre of Newbury, St Nicolas’s church with its excellent acoustics is the festival’s concert hall welcoming world class orchestras and international soloists. Newbury’s resident theatre, the Corn Exchange continues to present a nightly programme of ballet, cabaret, jazz and world music as well as regular lunchtime concerts.

The Festival is also proud of its involvement with the local community: by encouraging people to come and sing in the Spring Festival Chorus, which will not only perform with the CBSO on the opening night, but also contribute to a special church service the following morning. Local choirs, individuals and families can also join them for a special ‘singalong’ event the following weekend, culminating in a concert for all the family in Newbury Corn Exchange.

FURTHER DETAILS

Programme details
www.newburyspringfestival.org.uk

Tickets
Available from 1st March 2016

Booking
www.newburyspringfestival.org.uk
T: 0845 5218 218

For more information contact
Arabella Christian
Press & PR
Newbury Spring Festival
press@newburyspringfestival.org.uk

Hungerford Food Festival

Hungerford Food Festival - Sunday 4 October 2015

With over 50 stalls, sizzling street food and the buzz of live cooking demonstrations, this year's Hungerford Food Festival 11am - 3.30pm Sunday 4 October promises to be another inspiring celebration of local and seasonal fare.

This year's demonstrator chefs will include best-selling What's for Dinner? cookbook author and head of the Honesty Food Group, Romilla Arber; Head Chef of Blandys@Inglewood Gert Pienaar and leftovers queen Ilja Harvey for Love Food, Hate Waste.

As usual there will be plenty for local foodies to do. Come and test your ingredient knowledge (as well as your flexibility...) on the Young Farmer's Food Challenge version of Twister. Get your pinny on and enter the Hungerford Cook-Off or take up Barney's Pumpkin Challenge: last year local head gardener Barney Barnes displayed the largest pumpkin of his crop which weighed in at a whopping 95.5 kilos. Can you beat Barney this year? More details on how to enter our competitions can be found on www.hungerfordfoodfestival.com.

Local and award-winning food and drink producers will offer a tempting array of fresh produce, local meat and game, pies, beer, cider and wine, rapeseed oil, apple juice, honey, mushrooms, cakes, artisan bread and preserves ... with many offering free tasters and samples. And there will be plenty to feast on from Secret Pizza Society's popular wood-fired pizza, Andi's Finest German sausage and T.H.Burrough's burgers to Mrs B's saucy salads, Hog Crackle hog roast and Asian street food.

Hungerford Food Festival is proud to be part of British Food Fortnight and is kindly sponsored by Doves Farm, Audley Inglewood and Cobbs Farmshop.

Entry only £1 for adults (U16s free).

For more information please visit www.hungerfordfoodfestival.com or contact 01488 648534 or hungerfordfoodfestival@gmail.com

Newbury Real Ale Festival 2015

4,500 people can’t be wrong. That’s how many attended Newbury Real Ale Festival last year, and what fun they had consuming 18,000 pints between them. Join them this year for what promises to be another fabulous event, and something of a musical extravaganza to boot.

The event takes place at Northcroft Fields, Newbury RG14 1RS on Saturday 12 September, with gates opening at 12 noon.

The organisers have selected the ‘best of the best’ ales and ciders from around the country, and there will be around 140 ales and 100 ciders to choose from, including those from local brewers Two Cocks, West Berkshire Brewery and Tutts Clump. (But if beer or cider is not your thing there is a selection of wines to try instead.)

Tickets can be bought on-line in advance, and included in the admission price of £10 are THREE, yes THREE, drink tokens. All drinks are bought via tokens – this speeds up serving time with no change needed – and additional drink tokens (which are non-refundable) can be purchased on site.

This is a family friendly event, so there will be a tuck shop selling snacks and soft drinks. Although the family dog is not invited, under-18s get in free but must be accompanied by an adult. Anyone lucky enough to look under 18 will need to show ID to be served alcoholic drinks.

This year there is a fantastic mix of music genres performing, from rock to reggae, from blues to indie, from dance to acoustic. The Main Stage features some of the finest tribute bands around, including Guns 2 Roses, Noasis and The Doors Alive, and original work from the likes of Echotape and In Darklight. The Tent, too, has some fabulous offerings, including from popular local artists such as Oli Hill and Jenny Bracey.

There will be plenty of opportunities to tuck in and soak up the beer, with no less than four hog roasts supplied from Graham and Charlie Plank’s Bucklebury farm. Beer and barbecues make a wonderful pairing – try America-style treats from Sal’s Smokehouse Bar-B-Q and slow-cooked delights from Pit Smoked BBQ. California Taco brings the joys of tacos, fajitas, quesadillas and the like from native Californian Laura Hunt, who now lives in Newbury. There will also be authentic wood-fired, handmade pizzas from Little Reds. Or how about a kebab or burger and chips from local seller Ghassan? And if you’ve got a sweet tooth you won’t be able to resist Crown Ice Cream.

Thanks to the sponsorship of several local companies, the festival is once again raising money for Naomi House, the local children's charity, who last year were presented with a cheque for £10,000. There are all sorts of benefits to being a sponsor – including Cider Friday, need we say more? – so if you want to be part of the mix next year, check out the website for details.

The music draws to a close at 10pm, with an expected festival finish time of 11pm when weary but happy festival-goers will be wending their way home and looking forward to the next one.

Further details of the event from www.newburyrealale.co.uk