Cookham Festival celebrates 50 years

From May 10th to 21st, the Cookham Festival celebrates its 50th anniversary, and to mark this very special milestone, the Festival Team has planned a varied and exciting programme with a vibrant mix of the more traditional, as well as novel and unique events.

The Festival has a well-earned reputation for originality and this year is no exception with the publication of an anthology of over 70 poems on the life and work of Sir Stanley Spencer. The poems, selected from over 200 entries, are the product of an international competition run by the Cookham Festival, University of Reading and Spencer Gallery. The three winning poems will be announced during the Festival in May, with the best poem attracting a prize of £2,500.

The Festival opens with “The Hollow Crown” performed by the Peoples Shakespeare Company, while over the first weekend visitors will find a magnificent flower festival in Holy Trinity Church celebrating the Festival’s golden anniversary. The visual arts include an exhibition of Sculpture on the beautiful Odney club grounds as well as a number of exhibitions of paintings by local artists. There will be a larger-than-life art installation on the moor and the Cookham Knit and Natterers will surprise us with their guerrilla knitting.

Music, as ever, plays a major role in the Festival with an evening featuring the Stars of the West End led by local impresario Toby Cruse. Our up-and-coming young stars of the future have their own concert and the four local primary schools will come together to deliver a memorable Captain Noah and his Floating Zoo. The National Youth Jazz Orchestra will be performing and there will also be a special Jazz Eucharist at Holy Trinity Church. The Festival concludes with a magnificent gala concert, with the orchestra led by international award-winning violinist, Alexandra Wood.

The festival also includes the popular Strictly Cookham dance classes, which are expanded to feature Street and Scottish dancing, Ballroom and Latin as well as Tango. The 4 separate classes are open to all and conclude in a Tea Dance on the final Sunday. There will be an evening with local super-star Ross Kemp and two of our local Olympic sporting heroes, Adrian Moorehouse and Tom Aggar will be giving their accounts of “Going for Gold”.

“We are fortunate to have a great depth of talent in our local communities and our Festival harnesses these talents to provide an amazing range of artistic endeavour and a kaleidoscope of music, art, drama, comedy, dance, talks and exhibitions over the Festival period,” says Malcolm Stork, Chairman of the Cookham Festival 2017.

The Festival programme is now available with online bookings opening on 7th March. For all information and to sign up to the newsletter, please visit www.cookhamfestival.org.uk

For more information please contact Sue Yerburgh on 07974 147684 or sue.yerburgh@yahoo.com

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