Archive for August, 2011

Cheltenham is famed for it’s range of festivals – find out what’s coming soon….

Cheltenham Literature Festival

The ever-popular Cheltenham Literature Festival returns this year from 7th-16th October – 10 days, 500 events and 600 speakers make it one of the biggest yet. This year sees appearances from iconic actor Christopher Lee, former SAS operative and author Andy McNab, Popular critic and columnist Caitlin Moran, explorer Ranulph Fiennes and satirical writer Will Self. The festival this year occupies multiple venues across both Imperial Square and Montpellier Gardens. This year’s guest directors include Ben Fogle, Anjum Anand and Mike Atherton, each representing different themes; from Adventure to Money, Food to Sport.

Sarah Smyth, Artistic Director of the Festival comments;

This year’s programme is hugely exciting – not only are we celebrating our move to Montpellier and the birth of the new Festival quarter, but the programme is bulging at the seams with hundreds of mouth-watering events. Getting my hands on the brochure for the  first time today gave me a huge thrill and I hope that the audience of 120,000 who joined us  last year come back for more at what’s going to be a tremendously exciting ten days.

Cheltenham Film Festival

This year’s Cheltenham Film Festival, from 4th-6th November, is something really exceptional, bringing to Cheltenham three days of unforgettable special screening events and much more. Almost every screening event is complemented by an exclusive supporting introduction or post-screening panel discussion with a range of special guests. If you’ve got a passion for cinema then you’ll have the opportunity to exclusively hear some truly celebrated film industry professionals speak, and discuss their work. We are proud to be presenting within this year’s programme a celebration of several of Cheltenham’s most prolific individuals, including Edward Wilson and Brian Jones!

The Cheltenham Film Festival is proud to present Simon Pegg as its official patron for 2011. The Festival also boasts a series of appearances by big names from the small and silver screen – distinguished actor and playwright Steven Berkoff, veteran Film presenter Barry Norman, comedian Adam Buxton and BBC film critic Mark Kermode. It is an event not to be missed by film fans!

Cheltenham Comedy Festival

Cheltenham is something of a fertile ground for festivals – and the brand new Comedy Festival in November is sure to be an excellent and hilarious addition!

 The brainchild of Mark Makin of local makin projects and Graeme Merifield, Director of the Wychwood Festival, who have teamed up with lead producing partners Cheltenham Borough Council and Parabola Arts Centre along with other local arts organisations and venues to bring this exciting event to Cheltenham from the 15th – 19th November.

The line-up for the festival features an impressive list of the UK’s most well-known comedians – Ed Byrne, Kevin Eldon, and Sarah Millican are all set to perform, as well as some more off-beat favourites like Chap-Hop artist Mr. B the Gentleman Rhymer and Boothby Graffoe, who is taking one night off from his tour supporting Omid Djalili. Events take place in Cheltenham Town Hall and the Parabola Arts Centre, as well as local comedy club Slak Bar, over five days in November.