yellow pages

the Yellow Pages for Sutton Coldfield, Tamworth & Lichfield landed in the office last week. On page three you'll find a photograph of the Ukulele Orchestra of Great Britain at last year's Festival taken by Michael Barr. The Ukes of course are coming back for two silent film shows, both of which sold out ages ago, but if you are a hard core Uke fan, I would recommend clocking their Proms performance, and the online lessons so that you can join in what will no doubt be a new world record for the largest gathering of Ukulele players.

clore fellowship

as it was printed in today's Lichfield Post, and as Monday's press release is readily available, I can finally mention here that I have been awarded a Clore Fellowship and will be leaving the Festival to pursue it fulltime at the end of October after this year's Lichfeld Literature.
Like the team here though, I am currently focused completely on delivering this year's festival, so I won't post more about Clore at this stage. There will be ample opportunity between the end of July and when I leave.

hairys in lichfield again

whether you've heard via twitter, the lichfield blog or Visit Lichfield, be sure to be part of the crowd when the Hairy Bikers return to Lichfield tomorrow to film part of the new series. It will be a day shy of a year since they were last here opening last year's Lichfield Festival to a sell out crowd, and I'm delighted that someone has finally managed to make happen what I could not despite years of trying. Full marks to Visit Lichfield and Taste of Staffordshire for supporting this. The Hairys are trying to film in every county for their next series. I suppose they could have chosen anywhere in Staffordshire, especially as they will be cooking Staffordshire oatcakes, so I am delighted that they have chosen to return to Lichfield.

festival programmes have arrived

we've just had a delivery of thousands of Festival Programmes, a record eight days before the Festival actually starts. Since 2004, when the programmes arrived the day after the festival started, getting them back early has been a key June priority. We normally manage to get them in the office two, maybe three days in advance, but we've never had them more than a week in advance before.
Through in-kind sponsorship from both our new printers PCP and our long term in-kind paper sponsors A1 Paper, we actually have been able to reduce the price from the £5 it has been for over a decade to a recession busting £2.50. It was a bargain before. It is an incredible bargain now. This programme is packed with information for each event, and is available from the Festival Office from this Friday. We'll also be around in town this weekend in our new volunteer shirts (more of which later).

glimpse of visual arts

Earlier this afternoon I received a e-ping from Angie Lewin about her imminent exhibition in Lichfield, and it reminded me that she had sent through the work she has done specifically for the this year's Festival. She and I spoke ages ago about doing something as a reaction to being invited to exhibit here in Lichfield, and she not only very graciously agreed, but has also offered to give the total sales of the first 20 (of an edition of 60) completely to the Lichfield Festival for the direct benefit of future visual arts exhibitions. To the right is a sneak peak of the print - entitled Pale day, which is a delicate little wood engraving on Japanese paper. For those with a bit of time on their hands I would heartily recommend her blog. Alternatively, go to here for some excellent press articles about her work and her studio.
Subsequently, as both Alistair Tucker and Andy Lovell came on board for the exhibition, they also agreed to do specific works for this exhibition. I have yet to clock Andy's, but below is a little hint of one of the three that Alistair has done for Lichfield.