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Out and About in Britain Over the Summer
There are many diverse events taking place around Britain, this year, alongside the Olympics, here are five to wet your appetite.
1. London: A month of music and more in the City
The City of London Festival this summer celebrates its 50th anniversary with the theme City of London – Trading Places with the World and performances from internationally acclaimed stars in historical locations in the Square Mile.
During the five-week festival (24 June–27 July) visitors will be able to attend world première performances of music and dance. There will also be free family events and 300 free piano lessons on 50 Golden Street Pianos placed across the City.
The Festival will also be promoting and nurturing wildflowers across the City and at the closing event in Paternoster Square (27 July) visitors can try City honey taken from the Festival’s rooftop beehives.
City of London Festival, 24 June–27 July
Website: www.colf.org
YouTube: City of London Festival
The annual festival will, for the first time, be preceded by a four-day Celebrate the City event. From 21 to 24 June this will offer guided City walks and talks, events at the Livery Companies and an open-air performance of Tchaikovsky’s 1812 Overture in Guildhall Yard. There will also be family entertainment at the Cheapside Fayre on 23 June, and music in many of the City’s churches
Celebrate the City, 21–24 June
Website: www.visitthecity.co.uk/culture2012
2. Lake District: Half a century of British painting
Abbot Hall in the English Lake District is to hold a summer exhibition celebrating 50 years of Great British painters.
Francis Bacon to Paula Rego will feature artists including Francis Bacon, Lucian Freud, Tony Bevan, Christopher Le Brun, Paula Rego and David Hockney.
The exhibition, from 23 June to 16 September, will also look forward to the next 50 years of British painting and feature works by emerging contemporary artists of growing international importance.
Abbot Hall is open Mon–Sat (and Sun 22 July–16 September), 10.30am–5pm (4pm Nov–Feb), admission £6.85 adults, free for children and students. A Gift Aid joint Gallery & Museum ticket is £8.30. The hall is a 10-minute drive from Junction 36 of the M6. The nearest main-line train station is Oxenholme.
Abbot Hall Art Gallery, Kendal, Cumbria LA9 5AL
Website: www.abbothall.org.uk
3. Camping in style at Scotland’s big festival
The Stone Roses, Kasabian and Snow Patrol will headline T in the Park, Scotland’s major summer music festival. Elbow, Noel Gallagher’s High Flying Birds, Chase & Status, Florence and The Machine, New Order and David Guetta are among the 180 artists who will also play across nine stages to a daily crowd of 85,000 this July.
The 2012 Festival is over the weekend of 6–8 July, with tickets costing from £70 for Friday (£77.50 for Saturday or Sunday) to £189 for the whole weekend including camping.
The festival site is 20 minutes from Perth train station, 50 minutes from Edinburgh and 80 minutes from Glasgow. Citylink shuttle buses will run to and from all three train stations.
T in the Park, Balado Airfield, Balado, Kinross, Angus KY13 0PF
Website: www.tinthepark.com
4. Hanging on in Bexhill
Artist Richard Wilson is to balance a full-sized replica coach from the roof of Bexhill’s De La Warr Pavilion in a recreation of the final scene of the movie The Italian Job.
Hang On A Minute Lads, I’ve Got A Great Idea… opens on 7 July as part of the London 2012 festival. Its title is taken from Michael Caine’s final words in the 1969 film, when the coach, carrying a gang of robbers and a fortune in gold in the Italian Alps, swerves off the road and teeters over the edge of a mountain.
Hang On A Minute Lads, I’ve Got A Great Idea… is on display from 7 July to 1 October.
De La Warr Pavilion, Bexhill on Sea, East Sussex TN40 1DP
Website: www.dlwp.com
5. Music of the world in Wiltshire
This year marks the 30th anniversary of WOMAD, the international arts festival that celebrates the world’s many forms of music, arts and dance, will be held on 27–29 July in Wiltshire in south-west England.
WOMAD festivals include global villages of shops selling international arts, crafts and food. The UK’s festival in July will include a Taste the World stage, a San-Fran disco bar and many workshops and family activities.
Weekend tickets (which include camping and parking) for this year’s WOMAD cost £135, teenagers14–17 £70, under-14s free.
WOMAD, Charlton Park, Malmesbury, Wiltshire SN16 9DG
Website: womad.co.uk
YouTube: WOMADofficial's channel
To read about these and to find more events taking place all over Britain this Summer travel over to VisitBritain.com.
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