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Win Guide to June

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There’s lots going on in our fair city this month, from festivals to theatre costume sales and of course our beloved Hat Fair. To find out more, here’s our Win Guide to June.

Head on down to the Chesil Theatre for some folk music on 1 June, performed by the Itchen Folk band. The Compton & Shawford based group will play music from the British Isles and the US. While we’re at the Chesil Theatre, don’t miss their costume sale on 9 June. There will be a range of items on offer from various periods reflecting the range of repertoire that has been dressed over the years. Prices range from just 50p to £50 so get ready to rummage.

The Theatre Royal has an exciting programme on offer this month. Events include Germaine Greer, 3 June and her talk on the inevitability of ecofeminism.  Robert Habermann will be Mad about Movies on 7 June in his history of Hollywood musicals. The show climaxes with a marvellous medley of 20 Oscar winning songs. Shappi Khorsandi will be portraying Emma Hamilton in Mistress and Misfit, 8 June. Dance-wise, you can book to see the sizzling Flamenco Express on 9 June or Ballet Central on 12 June, featuring work by world renowned choreographers.  Families can enjoy the Integr8 Dance school showcase, 15 – 17 June.  Le Navet Bete & Exeter Northcott Theatre bring us Dracula: The Bloody Truth on 13 – 14 June. Kids will be interested in Tall Stories The Snail & The Whale, 10 – 11 June.

Blue Apple Theatre will be filling us in on some history with Winchester! The First 100,000,000 Years, 21 – 23 June. Where did those first settlers on the banks of the Itchen get a decent cup of coffee and did Jane Austen ever get caught up on the one-way system? And finally, don’t miss Reflections of Johnny Cash, Karen Carpenter, Judy Garland & Eva Cassidy, 24 June.

Winchester Cathedral has a packed June full of events to enjoy. Here’s a list of what’s on:

Stone Festival 2018 Friday 15 – Sunday 17 June 2018,

10.00am – 4.00pm Daily. Free Entry – All Welcome

Jane Austen: Tour and Tea Saturday 2 June,10.00am
Tickets: £12.50 Includes hot drink and a slice of cake

Garden Tour  Saturday 2 June, 10.00am Tickets: £6.50

Spiritual Tours with Rev’d Katie Lawrence
Monday 4 June & Wednesday 6 June, 7.00pm – 9.00pm Tickets: £5

Lunchtime Recital – Mikhail Lezdkan (Cello)
Tuesday 5 June, 1.00pm Free to attend

Modern Art Tour and Tea Saturday 9 June, 10.00am
Tickets: £12.50 includes hot drinks and a slice of cake

Britten’s War Requiem Saturday 9 June, 7.30pm
Tickets: £20- £35

Film Night: Stations of the Cross (2014)
Tuesday 12 June, 7.00pm Tickets: £5

Lunchtime Recital: Paul Turner (Piano) & Enigma 14.
Tuesday 12 June, 1.00pm Free to attend

Shipping Festival Service
Thursday 14 June, 7.30pm

Tour: Magnificence Revealed
Saturday 16 June, 10.00am
Tickets: £12.50 includes hot drinks and a slice of cake

Lunchtime Recital: Winchester College Music Scholars
Tuesday 19 June, 1.00pm
Free to attend.

Yanomamo – Featuring Winchester Cathedral Junior and Youth Choir
Saturday 23 June, 7.30pm Tickets: £15 & £20

Professor Alister McGrath – On the Trinity
Tuesday 26 June, 7.00pm
Tickets: £5

Lunchtime Recital – Wells Cathedral School Specialist Music Department
Tuesday 26 June, 1.00pm Free to attend

First World War – In my end is my beginning: Tour and Cream Tea
Friday 29 June, 2.00pm
£12.50 includes a cream tea

For the wordsmiths among us, it’s the Winchester Writers Festival, 15 – 17 June. The festival includes some interesting networking opportunities, including the chance to meet editors and agents.  The keynote speaker for this year’s festival is the novelist Patrick Gale. To book your place, visit the website here.

Winchestival takes place 16 June in North Walls park.  There will be music, comedy and street food to enjoy with the 1980’s synth pop band Fickle Friends headlining the event.  Winchester Comedy Festival will be ensuring that there will be plenty of giggles on the day.  To book tickets for beats, eats and comedy treats, visit the website here.

Hat’s at the ready, the UK’s longest running outdoor arts festival Hat Fair takes place Friday 29th June – Sunday 1st July. On Friday and Saturday there are two jam-packed dates of arts and culture all around Winchester city centre. On Sunday, all are welcome to picnic on North Walls recreation ground where there will be more entertainment to enjoy. For the full programme, which includes an inflatable Whale venue and dancing on giant Jenga, visit the Hat Fair website here.

With so much culture on offer this June, it’s going to be a great month in the city. We’ll be bringing you more updates on Twitter throughout the month. Have fun one and all.

Feature

Win Guide to June

We’re not going to mention the weather for fear of scaring it off, but June is most certainly here and Winchester has a lot to offer this month:

AirplaneHijack Cinema will be taking over North Walls Recreation ground with an exciting programme of outdoor screenings, including Airplane on 10 June.  Cinephiles are advised to bring a blanket and some warm clothes as the film starts just before 10pm.  Visit the website to book an e-ticket and for more details. And if you can’t make this date, fear not for on the 11 June The Truman Show will be showing and on 12 June there will be a screening of 500 Days of Summer.

logo_alresford-music-festivalThe 7th Arlesford Music Festival is on Sat 11 June, offering 4 stages of live music. Highlights include a festival village, arts & craft activities, food and drink including a ‘Ringwood Fine Ale’ beer tent, cider corner, cocktails and a Pimms Bar. This year there is a dedicated ‘Family Arena’ with loads of free activities and family entertainment including a silent disco, street theatre, circus skills, bungee trampolining, colossal climbing wall and inflatable assault course. There are free shuttle busses to and from both Winchester and Alton Train stations running throughout the day from mid-morning until midnight. Dub Pistols will be the festival headline act and camping opens on Friday 10 June from 4pm. For more details, visit the festival website.

Drop into the Westgate Museum on 12 June, 1-3pm for some Tudor music in homage to Shakespeare’s anniversary year, performed by Courtlye Musick. This is a free event, but donations are welcome.

Winchester Writers' FestivalThe 36th Winchester Writer’s Festival is on this month at the University of Winchester, 17 – 19 June. Speakers include top literary agents, commissioning editors or authors, and attendees can book up to four one-to-one appointments for feedback on their work and a commercial appraisal. Meg Rosoff will be giving the keynote address this year. For more details or to book a place visit the website.

HiddenThe YMCA and the Children’s Society have opened a moving portrait exhibition Hidden at Winchester Cathedral to highlight the journey of young carers. Former young carer and award winning photographer Max Alexander captures the burden of responsibility and difficult choices that children face in a care role. Standard Cathedral admission fees apply, 1 June – 17 July.

comedy-gala-nick-270x270The Theatre Royal has a lot to offer this month.  Little people will be delighted to hear that Tiddler & Other Terrific Tales are in town, 7-8 June, presented by Scamp Theatre. The Winchester Comedy Festival will be presenting a gala night on Friday 10 June, featuring Nick Helm, Rob Deering, John Kearns and Lucy Porter. Blue Apple Theatre in association with The Occasion are bringing Around the World in 80 Days, a new adaptation of Jules Verne’s epic tale, 16-18 June.  Young Theatre Royal will be lost in Anthony Nielson’s Wonderful World of Dissocia 21 and 23rd June and Integr8 will be having a Dance Off, 24 -26 June with 400 children and young people take to the stage to show off their street dance moves.

Don’t forget your polling cards for the EU Referendum on 23 June. The deadline to register to vote is 7 June, so if you haven’t received your card, here’s a guide to ensuring you are registered to have your say.

Plenty to stimulate the senses this month.  Enjoy!

 

 

Feature

Win Guide to June

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It’s Festival fever in Winchester this June, with the Winchester Writer’s Festival, the Flower Festival, the Criterium Cycle Fest and the Guitar Festival. Here’s our guide:

Criterium Cycle Festival
Criterium Cycle Festival

First up for the pedaling mad, it’s the Criterum Cycle Festival on Sunday 7th June. It’s a family-friendly affair with stunt bike displays, ‘try a bike’ activities, make your own smoothie on a smoothie bike and of course the Criterium races starting from 8 years and upwards.  Here’s a link to the provisional race schedule http://www.winchestercriterium.org/schedule/.  Events will start at the Broadway, and don’t forget that with a 1km technical circuit around the closed roads in the heart of the City Centre, you’ll need to plan ahead if you’re driving into Winchester.

WGF15
WGF15

The following weekend, Saturday 12th and Sunday 13th June, sees this year’s Winchester Guitar Festival, or WGF15. Festival highlights include Grammy-nominated Brazilian guitarist Fabio Zanon, and Cuban virutoso Ahmed Dickinson Cárdenas. They will be joined by lutenist extraordinaire, Matthew Wadsworth, for another “Late Night Lute’ concert in the beautifully atmospheric medieval St Lawrence Church.

Winchester Writer's Festival
Winchester Writer’s Festival

From Friday 19th to Sunday 21st June it’s the Winchester Writer’s Festival, for new and established wordsmiths alike. This year’s keynote address,  ‘Making it Up, Making it Real’ will be given by the legendary Sebastian Faulks CBE (Birdsong, Charlotte Gray, Human Traces). The festival is packed full of networking opportunities, masterclasses and one-to-one appointments with literary agents, commissioning editors, authors, poets and industry experts. There are also several writing competitions on offer for participants, from poetry to children’s fiction to Tv drama. The Winchester Writers’ Conference, as it was known for many years, was founded in 1980 by Barbara Large, MBE and became the Winchester Writer’s Festival in 2013. Events take place at the University of Winchester.

Cascades - Festival of Flowers
Cascades – Festival of Flowers

From the 24th to the 28th June, 9am – 8pm, Winchester Cathedral will be hosting ‘Cascades – A Festival of Flowers’. There will be a special preview evening on 23rd June with a champagne and canapé reception. Thousands of flowers will be used to create a display of contemporary and traditional floral designs, under the lead of artistic director Hans Haverkamp, who hopes his beautiful blooms will ‘surprise, overwhelm and lift’ people during their visit. Don’t miss Choral Cascades on Saturday 27th June at 8.30pm where the Winchester Cathedral Chamber Choir will perform a programme of music with a floral theme.

JUST DANCE ©Joe Smith
JUST DANCE ©Joe Smith

The Win Guide celebrates its first birthday this month, and to mark the occasion we will be sponsoring AFD/Giant Olive’s ‘JUST DANCE’, an evening of neo-classical ballet from celebrated choreographer Antonia Franceschi (Fame, New York City Ballet) at the Theatre Royal Winchester on 20th July. Don’t forget to book your ticket for a rare opportunity to see dancers from the Royal Ballet, Rambert, Ballet Black and Random Dance, some of the most talented artists of this dance generation, collaborating and performing together.