Festival of the Arts 2026
Another brilliant year of Festival of the Arts performances…
☆ Musical highlights included the voice of Squeeze, Glenn Tilbrook, Liza Pulman of Fascinating Aida fame, classical music from the phenomenally successful Carducci Quartet and also the Young Pianists of Bewdley, while the incredible Deborah Bonham Band got the Festival party started.
☆ From the world of comedy came Alfie Moore returning to the Festival with his popular Radio 4 series It’s A Fair Cop, and Alistair McGowan who dazzled us all with a 3 in 1 night of fabulous fun and music.
☆ We were again blessed with the brilliant historical insight of Lesley Smith, this time portraying Emma Hamilton, and Max Keen who took the audience through the long history of Dudley Castle in his own inimitable style.
☆ Dr Gareth Williams was also talking history in the form of Fool’s Gold - The inside story of the Herefordshire Viking Hoard, while the celebrated British & Irish writer Kit De Waal joined us from the literary world.
☆ And of course, there was much by way of fascinating conversation, including the BBC’s Stuart Maconie whose latest book looks behind the scenes of the Beatles, John Robb from the world of Punk Music together with Jonn Penney of Ned'sAtomic Dustbin, BBC Gardeners’ World’s Adam Frost, the irrepressible Reverend Kate Bottley, and from the political world Baroness Natalie Bennett, Green Party member of the House of Lords and well known sustainability champion.
☆ We were also very lucky to have the support of local organisations The Severn Valley Railway and West Midlands Safari Park telling us about the remarkable work they do in two separate discussions entitled Steam + Safari.
☆ And in the world of art, we were lucky to be able to screen Turner and Constable, the art film of the year, and to be able to feature the work of local artist Claire Spencer in this year's Art Exhibition, together with an afternoon spent in the company of Claire’s son Ben Bowling talking about her life and work.
