Lots more to come at this year’s Westbury Festival

WESTBURY’S fortnight-long music and arts festival is well underway but there are still plenty of events and activities to come.

The festival started on Monday this week and runs until Sunday 30th July offering a great selection of live local music, tours of forgotten parts of Westbury and talks and performances from famous faces from TV.

Events range from an Evening with the Korgis plus special guests The Lost Trades and Rachel Hill on Friday 21st July at The Laverton to a special performance of Dr Zebo’s Wheezy Club in Victoria Gardens on Saturday 22nd July.

The Angel Inn is hosting The Junkyard Dogs, a group of ‘seasoned’ musicians with a shared love of the blues, roots and rock ‘n’ roll music, on Saturday 22nd July and the pub will also host an open mic night on Tuesday 25th July where any local musician is invited to perform.

There will be even more music for people to enjoy on Saturday 22nd July as the independent country singer-songwriter Kirsty Clinch will be wowing spectators at Suave and local musician Wade Merritt will be performing at the Three Horseshoes in nearby Chapmanslade on the same day.

The legendary poet, broadcaster and number one best-selling author Michael Rosen will be following up his earlier schools visit with two special appearances at Frome’s Cheese and Grain on Monday 24th July which will include a Q&A and a book signing with each performance. There will be a morning show and an afternoon show.

You can learn more about the history of Westbury’s Hostelries on Tuesday 25th as local historian Sally Hendry will be giving an informative talk about some of Westbury’s pubs both past and present at the United Reform Church. There is also an author Q&A taking place at the Westbury Library on Thursday 27th July where you can meet the multi-published and best-selling authors Rachel Brimble, JS Lark, Lucy King and LB Griffin.

The TV star, broadcaster and survival expert John Hudson, known for his work on the Discovery Channel, will also be holding a talk at The Laverton on Thursday 27th July called Introducing the Survival Mindset and there will be ‘A Bit Of The Fringe’ on Friday 28th July as the celebrity comedian Tom Houghton, seen on The Circle, Channel 4’s First Dates and Comedy Central’s Roast Battle, will be doing live stand-up comedy at The Laverton. He will be joined by festival favourite, The Great Baldini and comedian Tom Veck.

On Saturday 29th July the Army Officer Selection Board is offering behind the scenes access to Leighton House; the Laverton will host Gin and Jazz with The Gin Bowlers and special guests; and the Conservative Club will welcome the rock covers band Not Fragile.

The Westbury Festival will end on Sunday 30th July with a pop-up Sunday brunch festival special featuring jazz singer Lee Ingram and All Saints’ Church will host Songs of Praise where people can sing some of their favourite hymns.

Tickets can be bought online at www.westburyfestival. org.uk/ or alternatively you can pick up tickets from South West Hearing Care on the High Street from Monday to Friday 9am to 5pm.

Ian Cunningham, chair of Westbury Festival said, “It is support from great businesses in our town who display posters, hand out brochures or sponsor events that lets us pull off a festival with such a small team of volunteers.”