Henley Festival 9th - 13th July 2008
Music, mayhem and a touch of mozzarella at 2008’s Henley Festival 9-13 July
This year’s Henley Festival will give audiences a big helping of quirky, off-beat performances. Alongside a spectacular line-up of stars including Lesley Garrett, The Gipsy Kings, Alfie Boe, Natasha Marsh, Hayley Westenra, and The Proclaimers, artistic director Stewart Collins has brought together a soufflé of surprises. Look out for the creators of the ‘car smashing symphony’
Auto Auto!, pasta-cooking jazz maestros from Italy Spaghetti Swing, Eric Waugh painting live on stage during The Gipsy Kings concert and a roving dinner party… Visitors can expect the unexpected from the moment they step inside the Festival Enclosure.
Says Stewart, "Finding performers each year for the Festival’s company of ‘Roving Eccentrica’ and unusual events to punctuate the evenings is almost my favourite part of the job. To complement the big Floating Stage performances I love to subvert the whole scale and elegance of the Festival with acts that are unusual, visual and sometimes just plain silly – they are what I refer to as the Festival’s ‘Magic Dust’!"
One of this year’s absurdities comes from jazz musicians and culinary experts from Italy Spaghetti Swing. They describe their ‘front man’ Fred Brindisi as the ‘voice and cooking’ of the band and as being able to ‘manage cleverly at the same time songs, glasses and pots, throwing out sparks and fireworks with some of the most appreciated jazz musicians in Italy.’ Don Gigino Sidero is given the dubious title of ‘piano with fraud’, JJ T Bone is ‘trombone and shot’ and interestingly Susy and Loli are ‘femmes fatales’ (these last 3 mysteriously only available on request!). Together they promise to recreate the atmosphere of a 1950s Italian jazz club and are doing just that in the Festival’s Club Marquee.
And if audiences have an appetite for more on the food theme (apart from the Festival’s great bars and restaurants) visitors can look out for the ‘Company of Roving Eccentrica’ which includes a wandering dinner party alongside such delights as Les Big Brozeurs from France, three giant Dutch saurusses, the Screaming Me Mes and many more.
Stewart continues, "If our bars and restaurants mean food is a much loved aspect of the Henley Festival, this year we have another theme– cars! In fact, we have planned Art Car Parade which includes a VW Golf transformed into a putting green, a Kraftwerk-inspired milk float and a wooden Rolls Royce made from chests of drawers. And to top it all there’s a ‘car smashing symphony’ on the Floating Stage created by German musicians-***-mechanics Auto Auto! Out with our traditional Saturday night Beating the Retreat for this year, in with Beating up the Opel Kadett. Obviously." Not to be left out, the visual art strand of the Festival also looks set to provide its fair share of mayhem and surprise. Two new art galleries may well cause confusion – one marked ‘Ladies’ shows work with female models, the other, marked ‘Gentlemen’ features the male form. "We hope," says an (almost) straight-faced Stewart, "people don’t visit the shows for the wrong reason. We also hope they will enjoy one of my favourite parts of this year’s programme – having the famous US artist Eric Waugh painting the Gipsy Kings live on stage during their Floating Stage concert. He’s painted many acts live in the past, including Tony Bennett, Nelly Furtado and the Doobie brothers, but this is his UK debut and we’re privileged to have him at the Henley Festival!"
The Henley Festival takes place between 9 and 13 July, and is now considered one of the biggest, best-established and best-loved Arts Festivals in the country. The complete programme draws on stars of opera, classical music, comedy, jazz, rock and street theatre – all against the beautiful backdrop of the River Thames. The 2008 Henley Festival runs from 9-13 July. To book tickets for the Festival contact the Box Office on 01491 843404 or visit the website at www.henley-festival.co.uk.
Generous sponsors of this year’s Festival include Invesco Perpetual, Westcoast, LavAzza, Waitrose and Champagne Laurent-Perrier, to name but a few.
access by car
- Henley-on-Thames is approximately 36 miles west of London and 9 miles east of Reading.
- It lies on the A4130 which runs from Oxford to Maidenhead.
- From London, take the M4 motorway, exit at junction 8/9.
- The Festival site and car parks are situated on the London side of Henley Bridge and are clearly signposted.
Car Park:
£10 with your tickets; £15 on the night. The Car Park will open at 4:30 for picnics. For large picnics, two Car Park passes are required.
The car park opens at 5:00 on Sunday