Perfect ingredients

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Surrey’s food and drink hero is back!

The multi award-winning Woking Food and Drink Festival is back for the seventh consecutive year.

Spread across Woking’s main pedestrian areas, the free to attend festival has all the ingredients to serve up three days of delicious feasting, fun entertainment and interactive activities for all the family, from Friday, 30th August to Sunday, 1st September.

Taking centre stage in Jubilee Square, the purpose-built Woking Shopping Demo Theatre, supported by culinary innovator Magimix, will be home to 20 free live cookery demonstrations featuring celebrity and local chefs.

The festival is set to welcome back, Sabrina Ghayour – a successful author, cookery class and supper club host and regular TV guest presenter on BBC’s Saturday Kitchen. Also making appearances are Surrey-based Chris Bavin, co-presenter on BBC’s popular Eat Well For Less and Martha Collison, Great British Bake Off quarter finalist, Waitrose food columnist and cookbook author.

A visit to the festival would not be complete without a foraging mission among over 80 food and drink traders; all fully stocked with artisan products, freshly prepared dishes and tipples.

Don’t forget to save some room for a free bite-size talk or two on a vast range of subjects from gin distilling to bees and spices to butchery.

Topping off this free to attend gastronomic experience, there’s also a smorgasbord of family entertainment on the menu – children’s cup cake decorating workshops, culinary inspired masterpieces at the arts and crafts workshops, street entertainers, live music and much more!

Wokingham Food & Drink Festival

For more information, including how to book a place on some of the bookable activities…

Visit

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Love local at Winkworth

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Join the party at arboretum – it’s much more than a walk in the woods!

Winkworth Arboretum is throwing a party – and everyone is invited to join the fun on Sunday, 1st September. For the 10th year in a row, the arboretum will buzz with song, dance and activity for Live Local, Love Winkworth, a spectacular community day in celebration of all things local.

Local artists, small businesses and charities will line the paths of the arboretum, near Godalming, transforming the woodland into a hive of activity and adventure to inspire all ages. The National Trust is even waiving the entrance fee for the day, so everyone can enjoy the party atmosphere.

Featuring a packed programme of events, there will be a whole host of delights to discover throughout the day. Visitors will have the chance to see local craftspeople in action and talk to them about their work. They will be able to get up close to creatures great and small, including alpacas and awe-inspiring birds of prey, watching the birds take flight in flying displays in the meadow.

The Fleur-de-Lys Morris dancers from Godalming will be returning with a colourful display of dancing. There will also be a varied programme of music throughout the day, featuring bands including the Friday Five jazz quintet, the You Ukes ukulele band and George’s Coastline Jazz Band. Each group will bring their unique sounds and rhythms to the arboretum.

There will be tasty treats a-plenty, with local food stalls selling everything from popcorn to burgers, handmade chocolate to nut butters. The Arbor tearoom will be open all day serving drinks, snacks and hot lunches, with vegetarian options available. If it’s a hot day visitors will be able to cool down with refreshing scoops of ice-cream by Jude’s.

Meanwhile, young adventurers can explore the natural play area, or climb up to the very top of the trees as they explore the Tree Adventure and let off steam on the rope tunnel, fireman’s pole and mini climbing wall.

For a longer day out, a walk down to the boathouse is just the thing. Settle down on a seat by the lake and watch the world go by or stroll along the paths and through to Badgers Bowl then climb up to the viewing platform for beautiful views across the countryside.

With 130 acres of glorious woodland to explore, there’s something for everyone to enjoy. If you have never visited Winkworth Arboretum, or haven’t visited for a while, come along – it’s far more than just a walk in the woods.

Join the party:

Live Local, Love Winkworth is free for all visitors and is open from 11am-4pm. call 01483 208477 or find out more at… 

Website

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Be Nice, Say Hi!

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Respecting the rights of all users is the idea behind a new campaign which has launched in the Surrey Hills 

 

Visitors to the Surrey Hills are encouraged to “Be Nice, Say Hi”, as the Surrey Hills Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty (AONB) adopts the joint campaign to help cyclists and horse riders to pass safely. 

Cycling UK and The British Horse Society (BHS) joined forces to launch a consideration and courtesy awareness message of Be Nice, Say Hi to help users to pass safely last summer, as they believed better advice was needed for people cycling to understand how to overtake horses safely.  

The Surrey Hills AONB is the first area in the south east to take up the initiative. Board director Rob Fairbanks said: “We are thrilled to be collaborating with Cycling UK and the British Horse Society to raise awareness of shared access in our landscape and respecting the rights of all users.” 

Lovers of the outdoors will soon notice the discreet message of Be Nice, Say Hi appearing on signposts across the region, however for more detailed information the charities have produced a downloadable leaflet and two short films. 

Duncan Dollimore, Cycling UK’s head of campaigns said: “Every time a cyclist encounters a horse, there are three brains involved: the cyclist’s, the rider’s and the horse’s. Many people aren’t familiar with horses, and there can be confusion on what they should do when overtaking on a bike.” 

He urged cyclists to be more aware when passing horses and added Cycling UK was delighted to be the BHS promote the Be Nice, Say Hi message. 

Horses can react quickly when startled, so the two charities are encouraging cyclists to drop their pace and call out a greeting, giving the horse and rider time to react before overtaking wide and slow. By alerting the rider and horse to their presence, cyclists run less risk of the horse reacting, and reduce the risk of injury – not just to the rider and their horse, but also themselves.  

Mark Weston, director of access at The British Horse Society said they were thrilled to see the area adopting the message. 

He said:  “As vulnerable road users, horse riders, carriage drivers and cyclists face considerable dangers on our roads and the need for safer off road riding opportunities has never been greater.” 

The first sign was put up close to Mane Chance Sanctuary in Compton, Surrey. Founding trustee and actor Jenny Seagrove hopes to see the campaign take up elsewhere. 

She said: “The welfare of horses is at the very heart of what we do at Mane Chance Sanctuary and I think the Be Nice, Say Hi campaign should be applauded for considering the needs of both horses and humans as they share our beautiful countryside.”    

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The Big Butterfly Count

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Join the Big Butterfly Count and spot the species

This summer marks the 10th anniversary of the Big Butterfly Count – the world’s largest butterfly survey. 

Wildlife charity Butterfly Conservation is calling on everyone to do as many 15-minute counts as possible between today, Friday 19th and Sunday, 11th August. 

Just record what you see and send your results to www.bigbutterflycount.org or submit them using the free Big ButterflyCount app. 

Last year a record 100,000 participants took part, spotting almost one million butterflies across the UK. 

This summer, experts are keen to see how common garden butterflies are faring, as despite many species bouncing back in the 2018 heatwave, colourful favourites such as the Small Tortoiseshell and Peacock both recorded poor years.  

Butterfly Conservation vice-president Chris Packham is following in the footsteps of Sir David Attenborough by getting behind the campaign this year. 

Chris said: “It’s easy to feel powerless when confronted with endless decline statistics from birds to bees to butterflies, but the fight for our environmental future starts with small acts, it starts with you.  

“That’s why I urge you to take part in the Big Butterfly Count this summer. By taking part in the count you are showing that our butterflies, our wildlife and our environment are worth fighting for.” 

Get involved:

People can take part in their gardens or local parks, but there are plenty of free events taking place across the country too – more details can be found here…

More info

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Help save lives

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Hampshire and Isle of Wight Air Ambulance needs you!  

Hampshire and Isle of Wight Air Ambulance is the charity that brings emergency critical care to people who need it most, in their hour of need. 

It costs £15,000 a day to keep the Air Ambulance flying and saving lives and last year the charity’s Critical Care Teams were called to 1,429 incidents across Hampshire and the Isle of Wight.    

Highly skilled crews of doctors, paramedics and pilots can be at road traffic collisions, sporting accidents, collapses and a variety of other incidents within minutes, ready to deliver the same level of care you would receive at a hospital emergency department. 

Hampshire and the Isle of Wight Air Ambulance is entirely funded by the generosity of our local community and we rely upon our team of volunteers to support our fundraising efforts.   

This is where your help is needed.  They are urgently looking for new events volunteers, speakers, van drivers, maintenance support volunteers and collection pot agents. Volunteers are also needed to join the new event support team, which supports HIOWAA on an ad-hoc basis at the mass participation events.   

Volunteering for Hampshire and Isle of Wight Air Ambulance is fun and rewarding and you can volunteer as often or as little as you wish.  Volunteering can fit around your own life and commitments.  

If you have some spare time and would like to donate it to this life-saving cause, please contact the volunteering team on:

  [email protected] or 02380 743516 or visit the website for more details: www.hiowaa.org.

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Bowie & beyond

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Liz Nicholls chats to Woody Woodmansey ahead of the Holy Holy show this month…

Three years on from Bowie’s death, his bandmate Woody Woodmansey still finds the concept of him being “gone” utterly surreal.

“He’s probably in my thoughts most of the time,” says Woody, “but it’s the same for everyone – he doesn’t go away. The music we created has lasted the test of time. We never ever thought the music we made 40 years ago would still be on the radio.”

Together with producer Tony Visconti, drummer and “Spider Man from Mars” Woody are getting set to take their Holy Holy tour around the UK with an all star band including glorious Bowie-esque vocals from Heaven 17’s Glenn Gregory. The group will perform Bowie’s material from 1969-73.

I ask Woody about meeting David for the first time, when he arrived at his flat in a big gothic building in Beckenham… “I had all these questions in my head,” says Woody. “Like: was he clever or thick? Could he write? Mick [Ronson] had raved on and on about him. I was expecting this curly-haired folkie from Space Oddity but he opened the door in a rainbow T-shirt, silver belt and red corduroy trousers and shoes he’d painted blue stars on. We chatted about music and I could tell he was intelligent. Then he picked his 12 string up and amazed me with his presence – he never flinched for a moment.”

Woody duly turned down the tempting offer of a managerial job at a glasses factory in his native Yorkshire to join Bowie down in London and make history. “The music industry had become so

boring and we wanted to give it a kick up the ****, which I guess we did!” laughs Woody.

I ask Woody whether his love of music started at school. “No! I didn’t become aware if music until after school,” he laughs his throaty, smoky cackle. “I just played Hendrix, Led Zep and Cream records, putting my finger on the vinyl to slow it down a bit and hear what the drums were doing so I could copy it. I only learned the rudiments later.”

This time three years ago, Woody and the band were playing the High Line in New York, not far from where David lived. “It was his birthday and Tony decided to call him. We played a bad karaoke version of Happy Birthday. The audience joined in and he loved that. He asked them what they thought of Black Star, which had come out that day and they went wild! We said we’d catch up soon but of course never did because two days later his son messaged the news. David had always seemed invincible. On the Ziggy tours he was barely eating and was often really ill but he always got on stage and smashed it. After the news we weren’t sure whether to carry on but David would have so we did, in celebration of him. And here we are now, still celebrating him. Our rider might be a bit less rock and roll but the spirit is just the same.”

● The Holy Holy UK tour runs from 8th to 24th February, including shows at Guildford’s G Live and London Palladium.

Visit www.holyholy.co.uk

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Magic of musicals: Anton & Erin

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Strictly Come Dancing’s “Mr Debonair” Anton du Beke tells Peter Anderson about his upcoming show in Guildford, together with dance partner Erin Boag.

Dance those Magic Musicals will present a marvellous world in which ballroom meets musical theatre with song and dance numbers set to iconic shows which have delighted audiences for decades.

Anton and Erin will be joined on stage by a sensational West End dance ensemble to present dances to Phantom of the Opera, Mary Poppins, 42nd Street and many other well-known musicals. They will be accompanied by the London Concert Orchestra conducted by Richard Balcombe who has also arranged the music, and the brilliant star vocalist Lance Ellington who may well be joined by Anton in some numbers!

I wondered, with this wide variety of musicals, which was Anton’s favourite decade for dance in musicals? “It’s not a choice I could make,” he laughs. “Each had some brilliant points, from the “big bands” of the 1920s, of which I’m a great fan, through to the spectacular choreography of Busby Berkeley to the incredible musicals between the 1950s and more recent times with shows like Wicked and Jersey Boys.”

Anton says this will be more a show-within-a-show with a selection of music from each musical, and then of course all the evenings will conclude with the now popular Q&A session with Anton and Erin. A desire by the couple to stretch themselves means neither of them have choreographed any of the numbers in the show that has fallen to Nikki Woollaston. As well as choreographing a number of Anton & Erin’s recent tours, Nikki has also choreographed many operas and musicals including Oklahoma at the Chichester Festival Theatre.

With all these numbers from musicals, would Anton fancy touring with a musical himself? “Maybe some time in the future,” he tells me. “One of the problems with musicals is they tend to stay at a theatre for a week, and with my twins as young as they are I just don’t want to be continually away from them. Doing the shows like I do, for the most part I can get back to south Bucks and be with my wife and the twins at night.”

Speaking of venues, is there one that Anton would love to take one of his and Erin’s shows to? There can only be one, he says. “The London Palladium! I so loved working with Sir Bruce Forsyth on Strictly and it was a place he made his own.”

Dance those Magic Musicals is on Saturday, 23rd February, at Guildford’s G Live.

For tickets please visit www.glive.co.uk or call 01483 369350.

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Concert: Violin virtuoso

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Former Young Musician of the Year Jennifer Pike will be playing the piece that won her the title when she appears at Marlborough College.

At the age of just 12, Jennifer Pike became the youngest ever winner of the Young Musician of the Year in 2002.

Three years later she performed at the Proms and has gone on to build an international career which has included many more accolades, not least being the only classical artist to win the South Bank Show/Times Breakthrough Award.

Jennifer is passionate about helping other young people enhance their lives through music and is an ambassador for the Prince’s Trust.

You can enjoy her music on Sunday, 20th January when she takes to the stage in the Memorial Hall at the college, as part of the World Class Musicians in Marlborough series when she will perform Vaughan William’s The Lark Ascending alongside pieces by Bach and Wieniawski.

Following the redevelopment of the Memorial Hall (which Marlborough College provides as sponsors of the concert series) the town now has a state-of-the-art concert hall.

The £6.5million project retains the charm of the original design while adding contemporary touches to create a state-of-the-art facility. The acoustics received accolades after a BBC National Orchestra of Wales concert recently and with improved front of house facilities, a concert at Marlborough College will be a true treat for the senses.

  Tickets available at marlboroughconcertseries.org. Enquiries: 01672 892566 or [email protected]

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High drama: opera screenings

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Catch an operatic tale of passion and intrigue at Farnham Maltings and at The Palace Cinema in Alton this month thanks to Met Live in HD.

Anyone who likes their opera traditional style with velvet and silk and not a hint of a bobble hat or a hoodie in sight should put the next Met: Live date in their diary now.

A tale of passion, intrigue and jealousy set in 18th century France are perfect ingredients to satisfy opera buffs and newcomers to the genre alike.

Francesco Cilea’s Adriana Lecouvreur, composed in 1092, is inspired by the life and mysterious death of French actress Adrienne Lecouvreur and her lover, the soldier Maurice of Saxony.

Soprano Anna Netrebko sings the diva role for the first time at New York’s iconic Metropolitan Opera when she returns for her second leading role of the season. Taking the role of her lover, Maurizio, is tenor Piotr Beczała whom The Telegraph recently described as “what an authentic star sounds like”. After a successful run at the Royal Opera House in 2017, this production recreates in exact detail a baroque theatre, similar to that in which the real Adrienne would have performed in the 18th century.

The Met: Live in HD is the world’s leading provider of alternative cinema and is enjoyed by nearly 3million opera lovers every season including in more than 200 UK cinemas.

  Adriana Lecouvreur runs on Saturday, 12th January at venues including Farnham Maltings (www.farnhammaltings.com or 01252 745444) and Alton’s Palace Cinema (www.palacecinema.co.uk or 0142 082 303). www.metliveinhd.co.uk

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Top flight: Alton Camera Club

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Alton Camera Club’s talented members are ready and waiting to help you perfect your techniques to capture the winter world around you.

hink you could take a striking image like this one of Jed Thornley’s? Entitled I’m Coming For You, it certainly looks as if the impressive bird of prey is coming directly at you and earned him full marks in a competition run by Alton Camera Club.

Jed was one of six members scoring 10 points and gaining glowing praise from judge Kev Sandall. Other members to achieve top marks were Clive Chater, Barry Clark, Steve Gregory, Steve Kirby and Tony Cole.

The camera club which formed in 1957 has a wide variety of members, young and old, novice to experienced and male and female. Every evening is something different, explains club publicity manager Kristin Barnett, herself a recent member of the club. She says: “I can confidently say that I have been welcomed with open arms. Everybody is extremely friendly. There is a huge variant of experience within the group and everyone is more than willing to help and give advice to beginners.”

And advice frequently comes from outside the group too, as Kristin explains: “We often have external visitors come in and give talks on various subjects related to photography. We also have practical sessions where we have the opportunity to put our new knowledge to the test.”

The competition from which the image here comes was taken as part of the PDI (projected digital image) contest, but the club also runs print competitions, AV (audio visual) and themed competitions.

Displaying the variety of subjects the group covers with its competitions, Kristin added: “Our latest themed competition was song titles and we were required to find a photo that portrayed a song title.”

Competitions also give artists an opportunity to go into external competitions against other clubs. Members also enjoy a variety of field trips which recently included a visit to Stourhead, fireworks and a walk around town for beginners to get to grips with using a camera.

Alton Camera Club welcomes new members to its meetings at Holybourne Village Hall on Wednesdays at 7.30pm. New members can join for just £25 in the new year.

  Visit www.altoncameraclub.co.uk

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