Blog Festivals

The Church Times Festival of Faith and Literature 2020, the popular literary festival with a theological twist, will take place from 21-22 February at Bloxham School, Oxfordshire.
Novelists, broadcasters, journalists, actors, poets, historians, theologians, artists, priests and a bishop are among the wide range of speakers taking part in this month’s festival.

There’s less than three weeks to go until a galaxy of stars appear at the 16th Cornbury Music Festival.
The festival takes place at Great Tew Park, near Chipping Norton, from July 5 to 7.

The sun has set on the final Cornbury Music Festival, described as the most successful in its 14-year history.
Thousands of music lovers flocked to the Great Tew Estate, near Chipping Norton, over the weekend to have a great time and see an eclectic range of superstars such as Canadian rocker Bryan Adams (pictured top), The Kaiser Chiefs (bottom left) and Jools Holland (bottom right) play their hearts out.
  
The weather was glorious and the entertainment on offer to all ages was first class.
So it’s with great sadness that thousands of devoted Cornbury-goers will have a gap in their diaries next July as festival organiser Hugh Phillimore has decided to rest the festival.
He described it as a “bittersweet” occasion but said this year’s finale had been a wonderful occasion with some amazing performances.
Pictures by Ben Phillips Photography.

The National Theatre’s life-sized puppet of Joey the War Horse will kick off the 2017 Cotswold Hare Trail in Woodstock on Wednesday (March 22) in the garden between the Oxfordshire Museum and the Soldiers of Oxfordshire Museum.
Ably assisted by artist Toyah Willcox, Joey will reveal the four Woodstock giant hares to the public for the first time. This will also mark the official launch of this year’s Hare Festival and will precede the opening of the public trail on March 25.

A fantastic all-star line-up of artists will gather at Great Tew Park this July for Cornbury Music Festival’s Fabulous Finale.
Joining Canadian superstar Bryan Adams for the Festival’s farewell weekend on 7-9 July, will be big band supremo and national treasure Jools Holland, Chrissie Hynde’s perennial Pretenders, and a host of Cornbury favourites including Sophie Ellis-Bextor, Jack Savoretti and Scouting For Girls.

A dazzling array of prize-winning novelists, agenda-setters and opinion-formers, historians, filmmakers, artists, academics, journalists , poets, musicians and comedians will come together in celebration of the spoken and written word this October (7-16) for the 67th The Times and The Sunday Times Cheltenham Literature Festival.
The programme, announced yesterday and available in full at www.cheltenhamfestivals.com/literature, embodies Cheltenham’s spirit of enquiry featuring some of the world’s most exciting thinkers and commentators, debating the most pertinent issues of our times.

One of the highlights of the autumn literary season, the boutique Blenheim Palace Festival of Literature, Film and Music will return to the stunning grounds of Blenheim Palace from Thursday, October 13, to Sunday, October 16, with a fascinating programme of events, discussions and debates.

Soulful piano virtuoso Jamie Cullum, 80s acid jazz pioneers Soul II Soul, R&B; troubadour Lemar and rock ‘n’ roll survivor Wilko Johnson combine to make a fabulous Friday line-up for the 13th Cornbury Music Festival on July 8th 2016.

2015 marked The Big Feastival’s best event to date with weekend tickets sold out well in advance for what has become one of the Cotswolds’ biggest annual events.

Festival organisers IMG were thrilled with an attendance of 55,000 across three days, as Alex James and Jamie Oliver played host to the fourth edition of the festival at Alex James’ farm at Kingham.

Stroud Folk Festival returns over the weekend of September 18-20 with a lot of emphasis on the Saturday on local musicians and performers.
Proceedings start with the festival Ceilidh on the Friday at the Sub Rooms and the band this year is The Watch.

Cheltenham Dance Festival will this year be twice the size it was in 2014 as it returns to Cheltenham Town Hall for the 24th year from July 31 to August 9.
The festival is set to once again attract attendees from across the UK with an exciting and diverse programme, including an evening of Strictly Hot Gossip with former Strictly Come Dancing judge Arlene Phillips on Sunday, August 2.

A whole host of artists have been added to the line-up for this year’s The Big Feastival, which takes place at Alex James’s farm at Kingham from August 28-30.
Dig out your dancing shoes as warming up the Main Stage ahead of Paloma Faith on the Sunday will be indie-rockers The Feeling, with super-special guest Sophie Ellis-Bextor.

The Cotswold Show & Food Festival has been busy working on its brand new cookery theatre for this year’s show and the line-up is now complete.
Chefs from some of the best hotels and restaurants in the Cotswolds will be appearing, including The Kings Head, Cirencester, Wild Garlic in Nailsworth, The Gumstool Inn at Calcot and The Potting Shed at Crudwell.

More top chef names have been added to The Big Feastival 2015, the ultimate music, food and family festival of the summer, which returns for its fourth year on Alex James’ Cotswold farm from August 28-30.
The new batch of culinary talent that will be giving unmissable cooking demonstrations on The AEG Big Kitchen include restaurateur Mark Hix with fish maestro Mitch Tonks, food fashionista Gizzi Erskine, as well as The Fabulous Baker Brothers Tom & Henry Herbert.

The cream of Oxfordshire’s music scene will be appearing at the the Riverside Stage at this year’s Cornbury Music Festival, which is set to feature music legends such as Sir Tom Jones, Martha Reeves and Billy Ocean.
Oxfordshire blues band King B make a nostalgic return to the Cornbury Music Festival, held at Great Tew, this year. Twelve years ago this popular local group were picked to open the very first Cornbury Music Festival. Now they’re back to headline the Riverside Stage on Saturday.