Much Wenlock Festival 2012
Published 7 September, 2011The 2012 Much Wenlock Festival was officially launched by renowned actress and local resident Mrs Gabrielle Drake at a press evening at the Twenty Twenty Gallery in Much Wenlock on Thursday 25th August.
The Festival will be held from 2nd to 24th June 2012 heralding over a quarter of a century of arts celebrations in the bucolic township of Much Wenlock.
Gabrielle said “The Festival has grown considerably over the years to encompass a wide variety of different events including the launch in 2010 of the Festival Fringe. In total 38 events in 17 different locations were held to achieve their bold aim of providing Arts for Everyone. I am certain that 2012 will offer even greater treats as the Festival is being staged during the run-up to the Olympic Games when Wenlock will be on a world stage but also her Majesty the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee coincides with the first week of festivities and I understand that something very special is being planned.”
The Festival Fair opens the 2012 event with a day of fun and entertainment for all ages centred upon the Church Green also to be the setting on subsequent days for the Diamond Jubilee celebrations. Yet again we are fortunate indeed to have the excellent Shropshire Drama Company presenting the Festival Play – William Shakespeare’s the Merry Wives of Windsor. Following her success in directing the sell out performances of Romeo and Juliet in 2010 Rosalind Garrard continues in this role directing this comedy whose themes are love & marriage, jealousy & revenge, social class & wealth – all the ingredients of a modern day soap opera! “It is accessible, light hearted and has a very special Englishness”.
A series of headline events are currently in the planning stages and include the highly popular Open Air Concert in Wenlock Priory (by kind permission of English Heritage), the Literary Evening at a nearby country house, the ever popular “open gardens” of Much Wenlock plus a variety of individual performances to appeal to arts lovers of all persuasions. Added to these will be the fun and excitement of Festival Fringe promising to be “big, bad and buzzin’” plus the more sedate joys of walking and cycling events for those wanting to enjoy the art of nature.
Pippa Walker, Festival Chairman, brought the evening to a close by thanking Gabrielle for her on-going support of the Festival, Rosalind for her resume of the Merry Wives of Windsor and Mary Elliott for the use of her beautiful Gallery now recognised as Shropshire’s “Home for contemporary British artists”.
Visit the festival website at www.muchwenlockfestival.co.uk
Photography by Tom Foxall