A curated guide to what's on in Herefordshire this month, with hand-picked creative events, cultural activities and hidden gems.
Curator's Picks
"Taking a slice of each of our ten stages, combined with a squeeze of Nozstalgia, peppered with the top-notch programming you expect from your favourite festy, shaken up in a syrup of surprises and surrealness, we’ve created a digital dose of pure Nozstock glory, pouring out of our front room straight into yours."⠀
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It's tough to see so many festivals taken off this year's calendar, so we're super pleased to see the Noz fam - who've been running their arts and music festival on their farm outside Bromyard for 20+ years - taking it online for 2020.
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Watch it live on Twitch.tv on July 25 & 26. There's an abundance of music, workshops and more. Even a live cook-a-long with The Beefy Boys.⠀
On July 4 and 5, Ledbury Poetry Festival is going online.
There will be performances from UK Poet Laureate Simon Armitage; Eritrean poet Ribka Sibhatu and translator André Naffis-Sahely; a celebration of European poetry with Maarten Inghals (Belgium) Paata Shamugia (Georgia), Sigurbjörg Thrastardóttir (Iceland) and Franca Mancinelli (Italy); work from Kaveh Akbar and Danez Smith; and a session with Los Angeles poet laureate Robin Coste Lewis.
?: US writer Danez Smith, author of the impactful Don't Call Us Dead.
Get your houseplants out and join artist Jamila Walker for this family-friendly workshop on the Meadow Arts' Instagram.
"Jamila will demonstrate how to create your own small plant-sculptures using accessible art materials, card, paper, glue, and/or recycled materials following organic themes. Decorate your mini-plant replicas by adorning them with patterns that reflect buildings; brick wall patterns, cement air holes etc. to build pieces that marry nature with man-made construction."
The live art session will be sociable and accessible, you are invited to ask questions, share ideas and be experimental. It's inspired by Alex Hartley’s In Ruins artworks and his new film for Meadow's excellent The Artist's Studio series.
Arts Alive/Flicks in the Sticks present a curated bi–monthly series of performance work to enjoy at home but experience collectively with others. Made even lovelier by the shared post show chats.
At 2.30pm on July 16, songwriter and performer Louise Jordan will share extracts from ‘Florence’, a one-woman show which shines a light on Florence Nightingale’s pioneering work as a statistician and reformer. The performance will be followed by a live Q&A with Louise.
Suitable for 14+
Email cerin@artsalive.co.uk to get a private link to join the post show conversations.
The world’s largest story-writing competition for kids is bringing children's voices into the conversations emerging from the Black Lives Matter movement. Chlidren aged between 5 and 13 are invited to respond in whatever way they wish in no more than 500 words, in the form of a story.
The competition, which started in 2011 and has strong links to Hay Festival, closes on July 3 at midnight and winning entries will be annouced on Virgin radio on July 17.
✏️: Charles Macksey
By arrangement only, Wye Valley Canoes in Glasbury is back open this month. Perfect for a socially-distanced paddle downstream.
Phone or email to book: 01497 847213 / info@wyevalleycanoes.co.uk.
