Wondering what to do this weekend? Here are five recommendations from us for what to get up to in the Cotswolds...
Underground Festival, Gloucester
Saturday, September 27
Underground Festival returns to Gloucester Guildhall for the fifth year running this weekend.
The music festival has become renowned for featuring the ‘next big things’ in music, with alumni including Bastille, George Ezra, Pulled Apart by Horses, The Joy Formidable and Mallory Knox, who have all gone on to make serious waves in the music industry.
Topping Saturday’s lineup this year is Raleigh Ritchie, and Sunday’s bill is headlined by Lonely the Brave.
There will also be performances by the likes of Eliza and the Bear, Aussie duo DZ Deathrays, Brontide, Prides, Fickle Friends, Sivu, The Bronze Medal, Dancing Years, God Damn and Brawlers, As Elephants Are and The People the Poet.
Day tickets will be available on the door (first come first served), priced at £8 each.
For more information, visit: www.facebook.com/undergroundfestival
The World’s Biggest Coffee Morning, national
Friday, September 26
The World’s Biggest Coffee Morning is Macmillan Cancer Support’s biggest charity fundraising event. People across the UK will hold a coffee morning, where donations on the day are made to Macmillan. In 2013, 154,000 people signed up to coffee morning, raising a record £20 million for charity.
The event started in 1990, when a local fundraising committee decided to hold a coffee morning where people came along to meet and mingle - as they might ordinarily do - but donated the cost of their coffee to Macmillan in the process.
There are a multitude of organisations and individuals participating around the Cotswolds. Visit the website to find one local to you:
Stroud Folk Festival 2014, Stroud
Friday-Saturday, September 26-27
The Subscription Rooms will be the primary host of the 2014 Stroud Folk Festival, with talented local and national folk musicians taking to the stage. Following a ceilidh on Friday night, alongside Jim Moray and “Horizon” BBC Folk Award and Spiral Awards nominees Lady Maisery on Saturday, there will be a performance by Heg and the Wolf Chorus, this year’s Bristol Folk Festival Isambard Award winner - Chris Cleverley, some folk roots from The Willows, last year’s Five Valley Folk Award winners - The Black Feathers and, opening Saturday’s proceedings, local stars Folklaw.
There will also be performances by folk acts at other venues around Stroud, including Stroud Old Town Hall, The Ale House, The Little Vic, Kendrick Street and Black Book Café.
For more details on events, workshops and performances throughout the weekend, visit: www.stroudfolkfestival.co.uk
Strike A Light Festival, Gloucester
Thursday-Monday, September 25-29
Strike a Light is a new festival bringing theatre and live entertainment to Gloucester working in partnership with Battersea Arts Centre and the Collaborative Touring Network.
Strike a Light aims to connect existing groups, encouraging people to work together and share experience & expertise, and to support emerging artists, musicians and performers. The event will be a chance for local people to be inspired to come together, chat and be inspired.
For a list of events, click here.
For further information, visit: www.strikealightfestival.org.uk
Thame Food Festival, Thame
Saturday, September 27
Talented celebrity and local chefs will be making an appearance this weekend as Thame hosts its annual food festival.
This year sees chefs including Raymond Blanc OBE, Adam Simmonds, Sophie Grigson, Jonathan Phang, David Mooney and Giancarlo and Katie Caldesi taking to the main demo stage, which will be compèred by BBC Radio 2’s Ken Bruce. Between them, they will serve up a mouth-watering selection of dishes and inspiring ideas to try at home.
Two stars of the baking world, baker Edd Kimber and his fellow winner of BBC Two’s the Great British Bake Off, John Whaite, will be joining forces for a double-act on the day, with whisks at the ready at 10am. Edd will be rustling up some chocolate soufflé tarts with salted caramel from his new book Pâtisserie Made Simple, whilst John will make a blackberry and gingernut marshmallow mousse cake.
An all-day programme of food and drink workshops runs at two locations across town, the Stoneworld Gallery in the Upper High Street and the Upper Chamber in the Town Hall, with sessions on pasta and sausage making as well as bread shaping and wine tasting. Sessions can be booked in advance by going to www.thamefoodfestival.co.uk/workshops-and-talks
For more information about this year’s Thame Food Festival, visit: www.thamefoodfestival.co.uk
