Andy Nyman to open the event at Green Days

Andy Nyman

As always this year’s Bedford Park Festival has a packed programme with a diverse array of events. Tickets are due to go on sale this week and, as the most popular events sell out quickly, you are advise to place your orders quickly.

The festival is to be opened by Andy Nyman, currently starring as Tevye in the West End production of Fiddler on the Roof.

The actor, writer and director – who appeared as Winston Churchill in Peaky Blinders and also created the cult hit Ghost Stories, now on at the Lyric Hammersmith – will declare the Festival open at the ever-popular Green Days fete at 11am on Saturday 8 June.

He’s one of several stars of stage, screen, poetry and music appearing at this year’s arts and community festival, now in its 53rd yearruns from Friday 7 June until Sunday 23 June, with the Green Days fete and Craft Fair on 8 & 9 June.

Pirates of the Caribbean star Kevin McNally, soon to be seen on TV as Captain Mainwaring in three lost episodes of Dad’s Army, will be interviewed by broadcaster Susannah Simons. He’ll discuss highlights of his career, including roles as King Lear at Shakespeare’s Globe and Tony Hancock on radio and TV. Another fine actor, Rohan McCullough, will be seen as the wife of Sir Winston Churchill in a revival of My Darling Clemmie directed by Gareth Armstrong, ahead of its run at the Edinburgh Festival in August.

Poet Imtiaz Dharker, hotly tipped this week to be the next Poet Laureate, will be the guest speaker at the annual poetry evening, hosted by Chiswick poets Anne-Marie Fyfe and Cahal Dallat. Dallat will also celebrate the life and work of the celebrated Bedford Park poet WB Yeats, in Land of Heart’s Desire: the WB Yeats Walk.

Music highlights in St Michael & All Angels Church include the return - by popular demand - of the London Welsh Rugby Club choir; a special D-Day concert by the London City Orchestra commemorating the event’s 75th anniversary; a serenade for flute and strings by internationally acclaimed flautist, Paul Edmund-Davies, violinist David Juritz, Grammy-nominated guitarist Craig Ogden and virtuoso cellist Adrian Bradbury; and a lunchtime concert by The Oxbridge Organ Duo, Benedict Lewis-Smith and Julian Collings, on St Michaels’ magnificent pipe organ.

Tickets for all these events go on sale this week at the Festival’s website.

Each year, thousands of people enjoy the traditional village Green Days Fête and Craft Fair. The weekend includes a bandstand with live music and entertainment, fairground rides and games, food & drink, a craft fair with 20 exhibitors offering a wide selection of high-quality craftworks, many different types of stalls, competitions; a Family Cycle Zone, which offers cycling advice, free bike maintenance and a raffle to win a bicycle; and an Electric Vehicle Zone.

For children, there's a five-a-side football tournament and a fancy dress competition (theme: Musicals), as well as face painting, games and activities in the children’s corner.

There are also competitions over the weekend, including a chance to Win-A-Meal for two at one of more than 30 local restaurants; the High Roller Tombola and the Champagne Lottery. The Photographic Exhibition and Competition will be on display in St Michael & All Angels Parish Hall throughout the weekend.

Other events include TS Eliot’s Murder in the Cathedral, to be performed by the students of St Paul’s School in St Peter’s Church, Acton Green; a house concert and a wine-tasting and supper in beautiful Bedford Park houses; a concert by the St Michael & All Angels Choristers; and Haydn’s Nelson Mass, celebrating the church’s 140th anniversary serving Christ in the community.

Regular Festival favourites include the Bedford Park Summer Exhibition, showcasing more than 100 works by local artists; Artists at Home, in which over 50 local artists and craftworkers display their works; the Photographic Exhibition and Competition; the Bedford Park Walk and the Bedford Park Open Gardens, featuring a dozen of the most beautiful gardens in the world’s first garden suburb.

It will raise money for the work of St Michael & All Angels Church and its charities for 2019: The Upper Room, which feeds and supports people in need in west London; The Amber Trust, which helps blind and partially-sighted children fulfil their musical potential; and WaterHarvest, which helps bring clean water to remote and arid villages of rural India.

The Bedford Park Festival is run by St Michael & All Angels Church, supported by dozens of local people and businesses. It was set up in 1967 to foster a sense of community, celebrate the arts, and raise money for urgent repairs to the Church. Since then it has raised hundreds of thousands of pounds for charities.

See www.bedfordparkfestival.org for full event and booking details.

April 29, 2019