Al Murray to Open This Year's Bedford Park Festival
Tickets now on sale for programme of events stretching over three weeks
Al Murray. Picture: The Pub Landlord
May 13, 2025
The 59th Bedford Park Festival is to be opened this year by local comedian Al Murray.
Best known for his Pub Landlord routine which he often previews at the Tabard Theatre, he has also had recent success with his ‘We Have Ways’ podcast on military history.
He will be doing the honours, as is traditional, on the first day of Green Days Fete and Craft Fair on Saturday 7 June at 11am on Acton Green opposite St Michael & All Angels Church.
This will be followed by the Fancy Dress Parade (this year’s theme is chess) and a day of live music and performance including Zoku Bellydancing and turns from Ballet 4 Life, Orchard House School, Arts Ed and ‘well known performers’ from the Tabard. The day will be rounded off with a set from festival favourites Bats of Ealing.
Green Days continues on Sunday 8 June with Mass on the Green with Father Kevin Morris and then a day of more performances including those from Chiswick Scottish Dance Group, Rock Choir Chiswick, Stagecoach Chiswick and The Basement Door Bands.
There is no entry charge for Green Days which runs from 11am to 6pm on Saturday and 11:30am to 6pm on Sunday and also features a children's corner, funfair, stalls, Cycle and Electric Vehicle Zones, food, drink, charity stalls and crafts.
The festival continues until 22 June with a range of events for which tickets are now on sale.
Highlights include a Yeats Birthday Poetry Evening, a performance by Braimah Kannah-Mason and an Evening with Marti Webb.
Incorporated into the festival programme is the annual Artists at Home event and a production of "Red Peppers" by Noel Coward and "Aged in Wood" by Cian Griffin at the Tabard Theatre.
The Bedford Park Festival attracts thousands of people of all ages. It involves many local artists, musicians and performers, professional and amateur and seeks to provide something for everyone and people of all ages - art, crafts, photography, music, poetry, talks, theatre, walks and children's and community events.
The festival was established in 1967 by St Michael & All Angels Church, with the support of the Bedford Park Society, to celebrate the arts, raise money for repairs to the church and foster a spirit of friendliness and community.' Its first patron, the poet and heritage campaigner John Betjeman described Bedford Park as 'the most significant suburb built in the last century, probably the most significant in the Western world'. That first Festival helped save 356 Arts & Crafts houses from the threat of demolition by developers, and Bedford Park is now part of two conservation areas.
Nearly 60 years on - and 150 years after Bedford Park was created - the Festival raises money for St Michael & All Angels Church and its chosen charities: The Upper Room, which provides food, counselling and essential support to homeless people and ex offenders in our community; Crosslight Chiswick which provides face to face debt advice together with money education and budgeting support to individuals and families in need; the McCabe Educational Trust (METI )which supports a range of projects in the Holy Land, including a school for the blind, an orphanage and the Princess Basma Hospital in Jerusalem; and the St Michael & All Angels Trust which gives grants to further the church's religious and pastoral work and supports the maintenance of the buildings.
Read more and book tickets at www.bedfordparkfestival.org.
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