PORT Eliot Festival 2016, Cornwall’s foremost annual festival of surprises, will see Noel Fielding and Russell Norman rubbing shoulders with Helen Dunmore, Andrew Weatherall and Ryley Walker on a bill for which ‘more than somewhat eclectic’ would seem to be the most appropriate description.
Port Eliot Festival runs from July 28 to 31 at St Germans, south east Cornwall.
Each year, at the end of July, Port Eliot Festival fills a beautiful ancient estate on Cornwall’s Rame Peninsula with a collection of some of the most invigorating performers, thinkers, artists, writers and idlers assembled in one place at the same time.
Among this year’s turns are: Noel Fielding, screenwriter, director, author and actor Bruce Robinson, influential folk-jazz-blues singer-songwriter and guitarist Michael Chapman, chef
Nathan Outlaw, prize-winning novelist Helen Dunmore, and many more musicians, writers and comedians.
New features this year include a programme of workshops, demonstrations and practical skills sessions that has doubled in size, after an overwhelming amount of interest last year. Late night astronomy walks and talks, natural silk dyeing, botanical illustration classes, diorama making, campfire cooking, survival skills, overnight campout for kids, headdress making, vintage swimming cap design, cider and cheese pairing, wild cocktail making, herbal first aid, yarn bombing, block printing, sound arts workshops, calligraphy and the Grand Port Eliot Clothes Swap will all be waiting in the Workshop Barn.
Continuing the theme of doing rather than talking, Hole & Corner magazine will present its own stage in partnership with Plymouth University.
Lark’s Haven is a newly created corner of quiet, where people suffering from a night at the front of the Park Stage or throwing shapes in the Boogie Round can find a forgiving hot tub with their name on, or a sauna, yoga or meditation class to prepare them for another night on the tiles.
This year, Port Eliot unveils a major scientific conspiracy with fellow great Cornish institution,
The Eden Project and the British Science Association. The most startlingly unusual room in the House at Port Eliot, the Round Room, will become the festival’s first science lab. Experiments, lectures and debates will fill the room; an all-too-rare opportunity to chew over astronomy, bio-hacking, the science of sleep and memory or food science.
Often, the key to Port Eliot is to put aside any kind of planning and just see where you end up, particularly as much of what takes place may not appear on the timetable. Artists stay on site for the whole weekend and so pop up all over the place.
Recent years have seen Dominic West hosting a spelling bee and discussing both Test cricket with Miles Jupp and an Indian pilgrimage with James Mallinson; Games of Thrones star Gwendoline Christie talking fashion in the Wardrobe Department and awarding the prizes at the Flower and Fodder Show. Damian Lewis turned up unannounced to compere the Wardrobe Department fashion show, Martin Scorsese has been known to choose the films and Evan Dando has joined the WI to run the festival’s flower show.
Festival director, Catherine St Germans, said: “Port Eliot is like falling from the sky into a magic garden where you will be constantly surprised and delighted; where you can drink, dance, discuss, dress up, camp, explore, get lost, fall asleep under the stars to the sound of Andrew Weatherall, and wake up to the ringing of church bells.”
Tickets and full festival information at www.porteliotfestival.com or @PortEliotFest
Child and family tickets all available. Children seven and under free. Day tickets £60 for adults, available online in advance from www.porteliotfestival.com
Comments
This article has no comments yet. Be the first to leave a comment.