If you sat on the shingle for Grimes on the Beach, keep your cushion at the ready for August’s Snape Proms!

Don’t worry – as well as the popular £6.50 prom seats, the usual comfy Snape Concert Hall seating is available.

This year from August 6-11 Snape Proms features a special Britten Centenary cluster of concerts and an overall focus on showcasing Britten’s concert hall in the most diverse ways possible.

Folk

Snape Proms has commissioned a new work inspired by Britten from folk musician Jon Boden (one half of the UK’s best-known folk group, Bellowhead), which will be premiered on Sunday August 11. His Ballad of Little Musgrave builds on Britten’s piece of the same name, which in turn is one of many versions of an enduring English folk ballad. In Boden’s hands the piece features a classical ensemble of violin, cello and oboe, joined by a concertina, the Peterborough Male Voice Choir, and folk soloists James Findlay, Tim van Eyken and Mary Hampton. Meanwhile the first folk event of the series is on Monday 5 August, with Lau, the three-time winners of Radio 2’s Best Folk Group award, performing with the Elysian Quartet.

Jazz

Alongside the timeless jazz and swing of the Dutch Swing College Band (Saturday August 24) and Glenn Miller Orchestra (Tuesday August 27) and one of the top stars of the contemporary jazz scene, Django Bates (Monday August 26), one of the jazz highlights will be Gwyneth Herbert’s performance of her remarkable new album The Sea Cabinet. Developed on an Aldeburgh Residency, the album is inspired by Suffolk’s brooding coast and theme of the outsider, ideas central to Britten’s Peter Grimes. A compelling blend of music and storytelling, this is a collection of soulful ballads, raucous shanties, perky pop songs and lilting chansons, backed by a mini-orchestra of folk and jazz musicians and field recordings.

Classical

Another Britten Centenary event on Wednesday August 7 sees Dutch mezzo-soprano Christianne Stotijn and pianist Imogen Cooper perform two Britten song cycles, Winter Words and A Charm of Lullabies, the duo having been coached at an Aldeburgh Residency by Britten’s close collaborator, Dame Janet Baker. We will also have performances by Suffolk Youth Orchestra, Britten–Pears Orchestra, Miklós Perényi, Ll?r Williams, Christoph Prégardien, National Youth Choir of Great Britain, Alison Balsom, Christian Blackshaw and Isabelle Faust.

World Music

Come and experience Spanish flamenco with Jaleo Flamenco (Friday August 9), Brazilian-Afro-Caribbean fusion from Flavia Coelho (Friday 16 August) and high-energy Cuban jazz from Omar Puente (Sunday August 18).

Comedy, Family, Poetry

We have comedy from Kit & McConnel (Friday August 2), the Family Prom: Magic Piano & The Chopin Shorts (Sunday August 25) and the family-friendly singalong, Come and sing Oliver! (Thursday August 29), plus the UK’s largest live poetry event, the Poetry Prom (Wednesday August 21), featuring poets David Constantine, Wendy Cope and Kay Ryan.

For full information on all 30 events in the 2013 Snape Proms, visit www.aldeburgh.co.uk.