Bishop's Waltham Festival 2024

With over 25 years of events and volunteer team members who have been involved in the meticulous planning and organisation for eery single year, the Bishop's Waltham Festival is a popular and much-loved annual event for the town. 

 

2024 proved to be an absolute cracker of a festival - starting with the COME AND SING events on Saturday 18th May where people came together to learn songs and then performed them in front of an audience at St Peter's Church that evening.  

 

We saw 170 children from local primary schools come to the palace on Friday 28th June for the afternoon, to take part in the CHILDREN'S CEILIDH.  They were brilliant!  Later that evening, we opened the gates again for the FESTIVAL CEILIDH which brought over 100 people in to enjoy some country dancing, both events organised by FOLK ACTIVE and led by caller Tom Gregory with music by Jigfoot. During the interval of the evening event, The Portsmouth Shanty Men wowed us with their booming, harmonious vocals, with locals commenting that they heard the songs across the other side of the town!

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On Saturday 29th July, we welcomed 8 acts to the stage including the SUE APICELLA BAND, MOJO DOLLAR, 19 FOREVER, THE PETITES, THE JAYS. DAN APPS DJ and culminating in a headline performance by BRANDON BLOCK DJ.  We saw over 600 people come and go through the day and by the end everyone was dancing their socks off!

 

Sunday 30th July saw over 200 people in the palace grounds to watch open air theatre performances of THE WONDERFUL WIZARD OF OZ performed by This Is My Theatre, and THE IMPORTANCE OF BEING EARNEST by the Rain or Shine Theatre Company. 

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We have lots of photos, videos and drone footage of the range of events - so have a browse below - and make sure you look out for next year's events as the team are already starting to make plans!