Summer here in Basingstoke means it’s festival time. The Basingstoke Festival, now in its fourth year, is an annual event hosted by the Basingstoke and Deane Borough Council “to promote the borough by showcasing its arts and cultural organisations”. This year’s Festival gets under way on Friday and has over 100 events on the programme. Here’s a quick peek at what’s happening over the next few weeks:
Comedy at the Basingstoke Festival
Plenty of opportunity for a smile and a chuckle at the festival this year with a handful of comedy evenings. On the 26th June there’s Friday Night Comedy at The Tea Bar on London Road, just a 5 minute walk from our dental centre. No names have been announced yet but they are expecting four top performers from the London comedy circuit. Then on the 28th June at The Haymarket on Wote Street you can see Katherine Ryan. You may recognise her from a number of TV panel shows such as Live at the Apollo and Mock the Week. The show on the 28th is sold out but we hear that more tickets may be made available.
Theatre at the Festival
If you like theatre in the open air then there are a few dates that you’ll want to make a note of. Shakespeare’s As You Like It will be on this weekend at The Walled Garden and then again at Barton’s Mill on the 28th June. You can also see A Midsummer Night’s Dream in a meadow in the heart of St Mary Bourne on the 20th June. There’s also a production of Joseph and the Amazing Technicolour Dreamcoat by the Vyne Arts Musical Theatre Group on the 1st and 2nd of July and for those of you who like murder / mystery there’s a Sherlock Holmes play at The Haymarket running from the 24th June. Quite a few other interesting looking theatre events, so do check out all the listings here.
Music Events
No surprise that there’s a large number of music events at the Festival over the next few weeks. In terms of big names you can see Elvis Costello at The Anvil on the 26th June and Russell Watson at the same venue the evening after. In fact the Anvil Arts centre will be having a busy few weeks as they also have the Basingstoke Symphony Orchestra performing a summer concert on the 20th June in The Anvil and the UK’s number one Zeppelin tribute band Hats Off to Led Zeppelin at The Haymarket the same night! All told there are more than thirty music events running up to the big one on the 11th and 12 July, which is Basingstoke Live in War Memorial Park.
There are plenty of other things going on around Basingstoke as part of the Festival, from family fun to film and dance. Now that the weather has perked up and the Festival is about to get under way there’s plenty to smile about here in Basingstoke. Hope you enjoy it all.
