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.

The silent auction will run for the duration of the exhibition, which will be showing for the last time at the Parabola Arts Centre, Cheltenham, during this year’s music festival.

Opportunities to view the work before bidding will be on Parabola performance days (30 minutes before and after each concert starts and ends). Private views can be arranged on concert days, if you are unable to attend during these times and have a serious intent in one or more of the instruments.

Bidding forms will be available at the Parabola Arts Centre or online. For further information and regular, highest-bidder updates, go to: cheltenhamfestivals.com/paintedquartets .

Along the way there will be six public weekend events, one in each district. At each site there will be art workshops, guided walks, donkey grooming, and opportunities to camp.

We’d love you to join us for one or more of these activities or go the whole hog and volunteer to walk a leg of the journey with us.

Weekend Dates:

Stroud

Westley Farm, Chalford GL6 8HP. 26th – 27th June 2010

Cotswolds

Cotswold Forest School, Spine Road East, Cotswold Water Park. 3rd – 4th July 2010

Cheltenham

Cheltenham Race Course GL50 4SH. 17th – 18th July 2010

(Priority Booking for disabled young people and their families)

Tewkesbury

Nature in Art, Twigworth GL2 9PA. 23rd – 24th July 2010

Gloucester

Over Farm, Gloucester GL2 8DB. 30th – 31st July 2010

Forest of Dean

Millers Farm, Blakeney GL15 4AP. 14th – 15th August 2010

‘As I Walked Out’ is part of Gloucestershire’s cultural Olympiad programme of events, sponsored by Gloucestershire County and District Councils. For more details see www.asiwalkedout.com.

“The undisputed heavyweight champions of ‘comedy pop” (Robert Spellman, Daily Express)

Appearing at Cheltenham’s Bacon Theatre on 7^th May, the show features diabolical mayhem from the largest number of Bonzos still playing together anywhere on the surface of the earth. Born in a distant art school past somewhere in the sixties, Three Bonzos And A Piano unleash their Bonzo Dog classics with energetic zip and palaver. Ali Baba’s Camel, Hunting Tigers Out In India, Big Shot, Trouser Press, The Sheik of Araby,  Monster Mash, Can Blue Men Sing The Whites?, The Head Ballet and many, many more – including some great new numbers.

Robots, smoke, unsuitable medical technology, ancient theatrical props, the kitchen sink and the audience (you get to join-in!) all combine to re-create the atmosphere of those formative years of the Bonzo Dog Doo Dah Band.

Book your tickets at the Bacon Theatre.

www.threebonzosandapiano.co.uk

The Gardens Gallery, Montpellier, Cheltenham.

9^th – 15^th December 2009, 10am – 6.30pm daily (open until 8pm on Thursday)

To see how he does it check this out… then go see him live, Thursday 30 April 2009 at 9:00 pm, University of Gloucestershire.

“Kauto Star wins the Gold Cup, Denman second, That was some horse race. Neptune Collonges set the pace but was passed three out by his two stablemates, who were neck and neck. But Kauto Star galloped clear on the run to the second-last and galloped right to the line to beat Denman by about 10 lengths, with Exotic Dancer third.” from the Guardian Newspaper, Photograph by Tom Jenkins

God of Carnage played to packed houses, at Gielgud Theatre earlier this year becoming one of the most successful plays in the history of the West End.  Originally starring Ralph Fiennes, Ken Stott, Janet McTeer and Tamsin Greig, it now plays the Everyman Theatre in Cheltenham before returning to the West End with an equally stellar cast of Richard E Grant, Lia Williams, Roger Allam and Serena Evans. Running from 18th – 21st Feb 2009.