BARTON ARTS WEEK 2008

Although the exact details of this year’s Arts Festival are yet to be finalised, a rich and varied programme already promises a great deal of enjoyment for everyone.

This year’s events span a ten day period from Thursday 26 June until Sunday 6 July. An evening concert by North Lincolnshire Youth Concert Band in St Mary’s Church on 26 June will get the programme off to a lively and enjoyable start. Also at St Mary’s on Friday 27 June there will be an introduction to Bell Ringing – a talk by a local expert and chance to have a go on a bell simulator which will be in Barton for the week.

Saturday evening’s event is yet to be confirmed but we are hoping to attract a high quality professional act. Watch the local press for details. Following on from last year’s successful film evening we will be showing two films at the Assembly Rooms on Sunday 29 June, details of which will be available on the Arts Festival Leaflet due to be published in early May.

Local folk band, Workshy Profits, provide the entertainment for Monday evening at the Queens in Queen St. Tuesday 1 July sees the return of the ever popular North Country Theatre. They are returning to Barton, to St Peter’s School, with an evening outdoor performance of the Prisoner of Zenda. Bring a chair and picnic and wrap up well!

A Live Music Now concert is on Wednesday 2 July with a concert from Consort 1700. They are an early music quartet who will charm the audience at Trinity Methodist Church by playing harpsichord, baroque cello and flute accompanied by a soprano vocalist.

BADAOS will once again delight us with its summer concert on Thursday 3 July, this year featuring songs from the last 10 years of its shows. The venue for this concert is Baysgarth School. Also on Thursday, up and coming comedian Robin Ince will perform at the Ropery Hall.

The Ropewalk is also pleased to present an unmissable evening on Friday 4 July when Sir Clement Freud will talk, without hesitation, repetition or much deviation about, among other things, his life as soldier, cook and MP.

On the evening of Saturday 5 July, Barton Town Band hope to be joined by a professional soloist to provide us
with a rousing concert in St Mary’s Church. Sunday 6 July sees the close of the festival with Barton Tourism Partnership’s Performance in the Park – Pleasure Garden.

Other events taking place during the festival will include Open Gardens on the first weekend. Trinity Methodist Garden Party, at which the North Lincolnshire Youth Swing Band will perform is on Saturday 28 June. St Mary’s Garden Party will take place on the final weekend on Saturday 5 July. There will also be a national open exhibition of printmaking – Open Print at The Ropewalk.

The programme will be launched at the joint Arts Week and Civic Society coffee morning which will be held in St Mary’s Church Hall on Saturday 17 May between 10.00am and noon where tickets will be on sale for all of the performances.

The 2007 Arts Week was made possible by grants from Barton Lions, Barton Town Council, Cooke Webster & Co, Kimberley Clark, Lindsey Relay, Longbourn Associates Ltd, North Lincolnshire Council, Proudfoot Foodstores, Ropewalk Contemporary Art & Craft and Smith and Walker Optometrists. Without their help, the Barton Arts Festival would simply not happen. We hope to gain their support again in 2008.

Why not become a member of Barton Arts? For the sum of £10 per year you can support the performances, which help make Barton a lively and vibrant place to live. Alternatively if you are a local business perhaps you would like to sponsor Barton Arts Week? For further details and ticket booking please contact Barton Arts at 15 Queen St, Barton. 01652 632438. or e mail:bartonarts@hotmail.co.uk