Summer Festival offers packed programme

Buy photos » Couns Pam Davey, Tom Noyes and Glenise Noyes with a 1963 Charles Bang Special, one of the cars on display this weekend. Picture by Marcus Mingins 2512013MMR Order this picture at www.buyphotos247.com

DROITWICH is set to come alive once again this weekend with the first annual combined Summer Festival at venues across the town.

Following the success of last year’s canal re-opening, organisers have put together a packed programme of events to mark the start of the popular Music and Arts Festival fortnight.

The boat gathering in Vines Park kicks off today (Friday) until Sunday (June 24) and is being organised by the Droitwich Waterways (Pamela May) Trust.

Headlines bands will make a splash in the park each day with The Roving Crows, BabaJack, The Cowley Cowboys, The Truck Stop Trixies and Hennesea among the acts lined up.

Local music and talent is on the menu tomorrow (Saturday) from 11am to 5pm while a blues session featuring acts such as Spa jazz sensations Blue Monday will be held on Sunday between 12pm and 4pm.

The gathering will also feature trade and charity stalls, boat trips and activities and on Sunday there will be an Activity Zone in Vines Park featuring a climbing wall, canoeing, battle zone, scavenger hunt, circus skills and guided walks.

Creative youngsters who have won a prize in the recent Diamond Jubilee art competition organised by the Droitwich Arts Network will be rewarded at Droitwich Library tomorrow.

The 15 winners of the competition will each receive a medal and certificate from town Mayor Coun Anne Taft between 12.30pm and 1.30pm.

And following the boat gathering, the town’s Music and Arts Festival will swing into action with live music on the High Street stage tomorrow and in the St Andrews Shopping Centre next Saturday (June 30) from 11am to 5pm.

Among the other highlights in a packed daily programme of events over the next two weeks is a free concert in Victoria Square next weekend feating the soul and R and B sounds of local band The Midnight Movers.

Organisers have also put together two evening concerts to close the festival with the first on July 6 at Sacred Heart Church on Worcester Road.

Folk songstress Deborah Rose will headline a programme which will also feature King and Folk and Droitwich’s own Spa-Tones Community Choir. Tickets are £8 (£7 concessions).

The following evening (July 7), Dodderhill School will play host to evening of musical delights featuring the Dodderhill Senior Choir and their chamber choir, professional artists Shulah Oliver and Andrew Weekes and a session from Droitwich’s own

community Rock Choir. Tickets are £10 (£8 concessions).

Tickets for both concerts are available from Grace Cards in St. Andrews Shopping Centre, online at www.droitwichspa.com or parents from Dodderhill School.

Visitdroitwichspa.com for full programme of events taking place in the town until July 8.

Regional news »