Multi-arts event to showcase city.
A parade of 35 baby elephants is set to launch this year’s Lichfield Festival in style. Owners from local schools, community groups, charities and businesses have been busy decorating their model elephants ready for the opening parade through the city’s streets on Friday 3rd July from 3.15pm, supported by Twycross Zoo. They will be led by the spectacular Indian dance artists Dance Sansaar and members of the Kenyan Masai Warrior Tribe. The elephants will then be on display around the city and surrounding region before finding new homes in the charity auction on Saturday 11 July.
The parade heralds the start of the 2015 Lichfield Festival which features 70 different events in ten days from 3rd-12th July and is one of the most eclectic multi-arts festivals in the country. From orchestral music to literature, theatre to film, comedy, visual art, walks and a host of events for all the family, there’s something for everyone to enjoy. The festival is supported by principal partner London Midland.
Festival highlights include comedians Marcus Brigstocke, authors Michael Morpurgo and Bill Oddie, folk songstress Eliza Carthy, jazz pianist Gwilym Simcock and his trio, the BBC Big Band, seven-piece ensemble Septura Brass and a recreation of a 400-year old publicity stunt with Nine Dais Wonder. Bellowhead’s Jon Boden joins the Sacconi Quartet for Elvis Costello’s The Juliet Letters and there are visits from the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra, Ex Cathedra and the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment.
The festival opens in the cathedral on Friday 3rd July with a specially-commissioned adaptation of Mozart’s opera The Magic Flute with an international cast of soloists. There is lots for the whole family including a vintage tea party on the Cathedral lawn, City Saturday ‘open house’ event, and a grand festival finale Vera’s Tea Dance at Drayton Manor, with The Three Belles and The Bevin Boys setting a 50s theme.
Lichfield Festival runs from 3rd-12th July 2015 in venues around Lichfield. More details from www.lichfieldfestival.org. Box Office 01543 412121.