Two great UK festivals - Cheltenham and Bath

[A Lark Ascending]

May sees two of the UKs more adventurous festivals. Any locals who have never experienced them should give them a try; any non-Brits in the country at the time might like to put them on their itinerary. Both are in beautiful towns in the gorgeous West Country:

30th April - 5th May, 2003: Cheltenham Festival

A centre to left field festival, with a programme of promoting newer artists. Established artists include:

Jazz Jamaica All Stars, Esbjorn Svensson, Uri Caine (in various concerts doing Bedrock, Mahler, Bach and other things), Michael Brecker, Dave Douglas, Mike Gibbs, Patricia Barber, Tomasz Stanko and Guy Barker.

23rd - 25th May: Bath Festival

Tending to focus on the left-field. Artist include:

Midnight Sun (a collection of the nu-Scandanavian jazz), Iain Ballamy, Misha Alperin, Julien Lorau, Andrew Hill Big Band, Irene Schweizer and Pierre Favre, Trio AAB, Matthew Bourne, Guy Barker and Gianluigi Trovesi.

Bath is part of the much wider festival that sprawls across late May with mainly classical music.

I've done Cheltenham about seven times and can thoroughly recommend it. I've only been to the Bath once but had a great time there too.

Both use venues inside the cities - no struggling around tents trying to find a portaloo that isn't filthy. You can walk out of a concert into a normal shopping day or just go sight seeing!

P.S. I don't work for either festival!

Edited April 5, 2003 by Bev Stapleton