Gary Barlow to shine at Blenheim 

Liz Nicholls

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Blenheim Palace

Liz Nicholls

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The multi-million-selling British singer songwriter Gary Barlow is the latest act announced for next summer’s Nocturne Live concert series in June 

The Take That star will headline the series on Friday, 20th June, alongside a selection of soon-to-be-announced special guests. 

As a member and lead songwriter of Take That, one of the biggest British boy bands of all time, Gary Barlow has sold over 45 million records, over eight million concert tickets and won eight BRIT awards. Gary has also enjoyed a hugely successful solo career with three number one singles, six top-ten singles and three number one albums. He is one of the most successful British songwriters in history having written a total of 14 number one singles as well as being a six-time recipient of an Ivor Novello Award.

Gary joins the line-up for next summer’s Nocturne Live series alongside Verve frontman Richard Ashcroft, Lightning Seeds and The Zutons, who perform on Thursday June 19th 2025. More acts for the series will be announced in due course.

Nocturne Live transforms Blenheim Palace’s Great Court into a spectacular 10,000-capacity open-air concert venue and since its inception in 2015 has gone on to become one of the UK’s most popular stately home concert experiences. Over the years the series has presented shows from a host of huge international stars including the likes of Lionel Ritchie, Elton John, Kylie Minogue, Nile Rodgers, Lauryn Hill, Noel Gallagher, Gregory Porter, Van Morrison, Tears for Fears, Gladys Knight, Elvis Costello, Simple Minds and Ennio Morricone amongst many others. 

Nocturne Live 2025 runs from Wednesday 18th to Sunday June 22nd. Tickets for Gary Barlow start at £54 and go on sale at 9am on Friday November 29th. Pre-sale is available to those signed up to the Nocturne Live mailing list and begins at 9am on Tuesday, 26th November.

Tickets, along with a limited number of VIP packages – which provide an exclusive opportunity to dine in the State Rooms of Blenheim Palace – are available from  nocturnelive.com. 

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Christmas magic at Blenheim Palace

Karen Neville

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Blenheim Palace

Karen Neville

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The much-loved Christmas experience returns to Blenheim Palace, November 15th – January 1st, with the ever-popular illuminated trail, a magical adventure in the palace and the new Great Skate ice rink

Blenheim Palace will sparkle brighter than ever this winter, with a series of dazzling new illuminated artworks set to enchant visitors in the garden and Neverland® in the Palace.

The illuminated outdoor Christmas Trail in the grounds is one of the highlights of the festive calendar. Wander the picture-perfect gardens filled with Christmas cheer to discover a place where new memories are made as a multitude of glowing lights and Christmassy sounds fill the air with the festive fun.

These stunning installations, inspired by the natural world and festive themes, have been created by internationally renowned artists and are guaranteed to add extra magic to the festive season.

Created by Culture Creative and produced in partnership with Sony Music, Christmas at Blenheim is a magical, after-dark trail for visitors of all ages featuring thousands of twinkling lights, seasonal scents, sparkling baubles, shimmering tunnels of light and vibrant woodland lakeside displays. 

The illuminated trail has everything you need for an unforgettable time with friends and family, including a magical glimpse of Father Christmas along the way. 

Inside the house, embark on a swashbuckling adventure in Neverland, a place bursting with magic and make believe. Follow Tinkerbell through the State rooms as she sprinkles fairy dust over baubles and Christmas trees, wander through a moonlit London skyline and onto the Mermaid Lagoon. The enchanting new experience based on JM Barrie’s Peter Pan is in association with the Great Ormond Street Hospital Charity. 

Visit the Orangery Restaurant and delve into a world of delight with a Neverland themed afternoon tea. Tinkerbell Blackberry Ganache Tart anyone? 

Also new this Christmas is The Great Skate. Go along to skate with family and friends in the Palace’s stunning Great Court on a spectacular, covered ice rink. Surrounded by breathtaking beauty and festive decor, enjoy a luxurious hot chocolate or tasty treats at rink-side seats. Capture the perfect festive family photo in this unique setting. 

Christmas just wouldn’t be Christmas without the traditional wooden chalets showcasing a range of festive treats from designer-makers and artisan food and drink producers. Stock up on festive goodies, and if you’ve worked up an appetite indulge in the treats on offer at the street food stalls. This will run from Friday, 15th November to Sunday, 22nd December.   

For more details on all the Christmas magic at Blenheim Palace this year and to book tickets (essential), please visit Christmas at Blenheim | Festive Light Trail & Christmas Market

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Pumpkins & more at the palace!

Liz Nicholls

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Blenheim Palace

Liz Nicholls

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Get ready for an unforgettable half term experience at Blenheim Palace, where families can enjoy a range of eerily exciting activities from Monday 26th October to Sunday 3rd November

From pumpkin decorating to captivating storytelling and fire performances, this October half term, Adventure Play, the Walled Garden, and the Great Court at Blenheim Palace are all being transformed into a spook-tacular sensation for all ages.

In the Walled Garden visit the Pumpkin Patch for decorating and the Wizard Walkabout with Bumblebore the Wizard. The Walled Garden will also host daily Family Circus Shows at 12.30pm and 3pm, and a Circus Workshop at 1.30pm. Amid hay bales and playful scarecrows, capture spooky memories of the enchanting experience with special photo spots.

In the Great Court witness mesmerising Fire Performances every hour from 12pm to 3pm, lighting up the backdrop of the UNESCO World Heritage Site.

In Adventure Play, families can experience the all-new immersive Pip and Posy trail based on the delightful episode of the ‘Grumpy Pebble’, that will guide children through a series of imaginative and engaging activities. Along the way, little explorers will complete tasks and traverse the immersive play area featuring secret chambers, clamber nets, tunnels, slides, rope bridges – and giant carrots!

What’s more, for just £1 per person, hop on board a miniature train ride through the Terrifying Tunnel that will be running all day for families from 10am until 3.45pm. 

The themed activities will be available exclusively during the half-term week only and require a valid Pass or day ticket. Full details of the October half term line-up along with terms and conditions can be found on the Blenheim Palace website. 

The Palace & Play Pass is £150 for a family of four (two adults and two children) and is £50 per adult and £40 per child for individual day passes. Existing Family Annual Pass holders (two adults and two children) can upgrade to the new Palace and Play Pass for £51 and individual annual passes can be upgraded for £18 per child and £12 per adult.  

*Please note that this lineup for Haunted Half Term is a separate event to the Halloween light trail which is a ticketed event that can be experienced from dusk into darkness from Friday 25th October to – Sunday 3rd November 2024. 

For information on the spooky schedule of events and to book tickets visit, blenheimpalace.com/whats-on/events/haunted-half-term.html 

For further information about the Halloween light trail visit, tickets.blenheimpalace.com/shows/Show.aspx?sh=BLHALLO24  

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Fantastic florals at Blenheim Palace

Round & About

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The Blenheim Palace Flower Show, sponsored by Sofas & Stuff, returns to the beautiful grounds of Blenheim Palace from Friday 21st to Sunday, 23rd June

Featuring more stands and floral features than before, including a new for 2024 Fairground Fuchsia Carousel, this year’s Blenheim Palace Flower Show is sure to impress.

The magnificent Grand Floral Pavilion returns, as well as incredible outdoor floral displays in Floral Street, a brand-new plant inspired Butterfly Trail, talks and demonstrations from gardening experts, fabulous food and drink, homeware and crafts, plus live entertainment.

“It’s wonderful to be returning to Blenheim Palace,” said Mig Kimpton, horticultural curator for the Blenheim Palace Flower Show. “It’s such a stunning estate to be working in.

Our Grand Floral Pavilion is always at the heart of the show, and our outside Floral Street creates some wonderful displays that always impress visitors.”

Now in its 11th year, the show has grown in size and popularity, attracting thousands of visitors year on year to marvel at the stunning floral displays, receive advice and tips from expert plantsmen and treat their gardens to an array of gardening goodies from hundreds of exhibitors.

Step inside the Grand Floral Pavilion and marvel at the stunning Fuchsia Carousel, a 20ft moving display, resembling the classic fairground ride.

Following the success of last year’s Insect Trail, this year visitors will also be invited on a very special and creative Butterfly Trail around the show where florists, flower arrangers, students and artists have designed, built, and created large scale butterflies made from natural materials and flowers to display at the show. Visitors will be able to choose their favourite butterfly and the designer will win a People’s Choice Award.

As part of the talks and displays throughout the weekend, the Oxfordshire Beekeepers Association will be giving live hire demonstrations with the chance for the public to ask questions and learn more about the importance of bees and pollination.

In the Talks Theatre, plantsmen and floral experts will give talks and demonstrations on all gardening topics, sharing their tips and advice on all garden matters, visitors will be able to purchase plants from their nurseries directly at the show.

The ‘Shop and Drop’ Marquee will give visitors the opportunity to drop off their shopping while they still enjoy the show before making their way back to the their vehicle.

The show also features an Outdoor Plant Village, Fine Food & Drinks Pavilion, Home & Interiors Pavilion and so much more.

The Blenheim Palace Flower Show runs from 10am to 5pm on Friday 21st, Saturday 22nd and Sunday, 23rd June. Free parking will be available for all visitors. Tickets are available online via Blenheim Flower Show

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Tunde Baiyewu on playing Blenheim live

Liz Nicholls

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Blenheim Palace

The Lighthouse Family’s Tunde Baiyewu chats to Liz Nicholls ahead of playing as part of the Nocturne Live series at Blenheim Palace with Gregory Porter & Emeli Sandé in June.

Q. Hi Tunde! Are you looking forward to playing at Blenheim?

“Hello. Yes, I am. I haven’t been to Blenheim. A few years before the pandemic we had been asked to play the palace but everything went topsy turvy. I’m chuffed that it’s happening now. You usually look on from the sidelines with these kind of events. It’s an amazing venue so I feel blessed.

This date comes in the middle of my tour which starts 26th May in Cardiff, goes on to 24th June. I’m a fan of Gregory Porter as well as Emeli Sandé so I’m going to be enjoying it as much as any other member of the audience.”

Q. How do you take care of that wonderful voice?

“I’m very quiet on the day of the show. A couple of hours before a show I say almost nothing – but partly that’s nerves! I resort to a lot of ginger, lemon and honey drinks. You know what it’s like, we Africans sometimes get overexcited. You know those situations in a bar or a club with your friends and everyone’s trying to talk over the music? You think you’re whispering but you don’t realise you’re shouting over the din, and find out when you’ve left. The next day you’re hoarse. So I won’t be raising my voice at all.”

Q. What’s your first memory of music?

“Well, I was born in London but when I was about five my mum took my sister and I back to Nigeria because my biological father died. She had to relocate to Lagos. Back then my mum, in her infinite wisdom, decided the best thing to keep me out of trouble was to enrol me in the church choir, singing lots of hymns. Then you’d be back to terra firma, you’d do some naughty things and then you’d go back to church on Sunday!

I never really could get my head round the idea that people wrote those hymns. I used to think as a kid, oh these songs are wonderful but nobody created them, they just existed. They’re just there and they help us feel good. In Nigeria growing up Michael Jackson was on the radio a lot, and James Taylor was very big and I love a lot of his stuff. So when I went up to Newcastle with Paul [Tucker] after college we were always going to nightclubs and listening to music, that sort of scene. Always liked buying records cheap – I had a lot of R&B, hip hop on vinyl. When I realised people wrote those hymns, that inspired me. A lot of the Lighthouse Family songs definitely have a spiritual connotation to them. That’s where they come from, but in a modern way – not a Kumbaya sort of way – songs that were like sitting with someone having a meaningful chat about life & love & spiritually – those were the sort of conversations we’d be having in the studio, Paul and myself.”

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Peter Rabbit & pals at Blenheim

Round & About

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Blenheim Palace

Looking for something fun and immersive to do with your little bunnies in a gorgeous setting?

The Peter Rabbit Garden Adventure is the fabulous live immersive experience in the grounds of Blenheim Palace until 3rd September.

We have some happy bunnies here at Round & About who have loved the magical mix of storytelling, live performance, and puppetry.

Developed in association with Frederick Warne & Co, this is the first time Peter Rabbit has appeared in this way, and is also a first for World Heritage Site Blenheim Palace which has allowed unprecedented access for families trying to save Peter Rabbit from ending up in Mr McGregor’s pie.

The Peter Rabbit Garden Adventure is a fabulous live immersive experience in the grounds of Blenheim Palace

This 50-minute immersive adventure celebrates Beatrix Potter’s beloved rabbit who has starred in 250 million books sold since he first appeared at the start of the 20th century. The experience has been created by the team behind Autumn Treasure Hunt with Percy The Park Keeper At Chiswick House & Gardens.

There are also free activities on site and a Peter Rabbit Farm Shop.

Find out more

For more info or to book your trip please visit PeterRabbitGardenAdventure.com & blenheimpalace.com

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Nocturne Live at Blenheim Palace

Liz Nicholls

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Blenheim Palace

Blenheim beauty is the backdrop for Nocturne Live stars. Singer/songwriter Mick Hucknall chats about being back on the road performing as Simply Red get set to star at Nocturne Live at Blenheim Palace on 15th June

“What I’m most looking forward to about going back on tour is the audience because I think all of us have been through so much,” says Mick. “Some of us have lost family and friends, which is clearly a very emotional thing, and I just want to be a reassuring figure to the audience that we’re here, you know, entertaining them with the music they clearly love because they’re at the shows.

“The other part of it is that there’s great camaraderie between the band and I’ve missed them and very much look forward to being on a stage. And I know that we’re all gonna be really proud and thrilled to be performing to the audience.”

Q. Is there anything you don’t like about being on tour? “Well, you know, maybe three years ago I would have said yes, but I’m now saying there’s nothing, because I’m actually quite thankful to just even be on tour.”

Q. Without being able to perform over lockdowns, what has helped you cope? “Well, during the pandemic I’ve been lucky enough to have a family and we’ve been in it together, and we’ve had to deal with it like every other family has. I feel particularly for those people that don’t have a family, who have been on their own throughout this time. And again, that’s one of the beautiful things about being on the road is that you can actually be part of their family by having them come to the show and share the experience. The other thing I’ve been doing in the pandemic is writing songs, so that’s been a very positive experience and I’m hoping to share some of that music with you when the time is right, in the autumn I would think.”

Q. What can the fans expect from the tour? “Well, I want to effectively give the fans what they want. We’re gonna perform our ‘best of’, we’re gonna perform the biggest songs of our career and some familiar album tracks from over the years, but it’s just gonna be a real review of the story of Simply Red from 1985 to now, and we hope to give you the big hits.”

Q. Do you have a favourite song to perform and why? “I guess I have to say the favourite song to perform will always be Holding Back The Years. It’s just such a key song on so many levels. But then again there are others. Stars is always a favourite to perform. But always I think, for everybody, Holding Back The Years, it’s the first major song I ever wrote, and it’s something that will always be played.”

Simply Red join headliners Lionel Richie, Simple Minds, UB40 featuring Ali and Astro, and David Gray (celebrating the 20th anniversary of his seminal album White Ladder) on the line-up for the popular concert series, which will run across five nights from Wednesday June 15th to Sunday June 19th 2022.

Support acts for next summer’s event include the likes of Macy Gray, Deacon Blue, Brand New Heavies, Nerina Pallot, Jimmy Cliff, Aswad and James Morrison (full details below). Tickets, along with a limited number of VIP packages – which provide an exclusive opportunity to dine in the State Rooms of Blenheim Palace – are available from www.nocturnelive.com.

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Blenheim Palace Flower Show

Grace Tracey

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From classy garden furniture to wacky ornaments for your backyard there was no end to the inspiration on offer at Blenheim Palace Flower Show.

Some of the creative displays stopped me in my tracks and there was so much to see and learn. You need to go round at least twice to see everything.

As someone who knows nothing about flowers, I was inspired and excited to improve my garden this summer and bring in some of the more quirky ideas I saw. Succulents in household objects was a personal favourite. I saw a lot of people had purchased foxtail barley (Hordeum Jubatum) and my FOMO made me buy some too – I’m planning to build an ornamental grassy display with a variety of sizes and colours.

The Grand Floral Pavilion greeted us with an array of gorgeous colours and smells that filled the marquee. The floral carousel was a highlight, created by RHS Medal winner Mig Kimpton – impossible to pass without taking a snap.

In the National Association of Flower Arrangement Societies (NAFAS) Marquee I was expecting to be impressed and was not disappointed. The arrangements showed off their amazing talents and encouraged some to create their own at the hands-on workshop.

Their creations would have been worthy of guest speaker George Clarke who shared how his love of architecture sprouted and grew during a question and answer session on Friday, 21st June, and later presented the Best in Show award.

As with any good outdoor extravaganza, there was a fabulous Food & Drink Pavilion to tuck in to too right next to the entrance and having arrived with an empty belly, we sampled some delicious gins, fudge, olives, baclava, cheeses and more, not least the amazingl-named cheese The Drunken Monk from the Great British Cheese Company.

There were plenty of artists and designer stalls as well which caught my eye – especially UK Pet Portraits where your beloved furry friends can be made into a work of art.

A fantastic day made even better by sunshine and lots of dogs. I would definitely recommend putting it in your diary for a future visit – lovers of all things floral, home and inspirational won’t want to miss out.

Missed the flower show?

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Hooked on Peter Pan

Round & About

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Journey to Neverland thanks to an open-air musical production of Peter Pan by the Immersion Theatre team, writes Peter Anderson

Once again, the theatre’s artistic director James Tobias combines with composer Robert Gathercole for this latest adaptation of J. M. Barrie’s iconic story about a boy who never grew up.

“I’m incredibly excited to continue expanding Immersion’s portfolio of work,” James tells me. “Peter Pan is shaping up to be another
larger-than-life summer treat for families of all ages, complete with all the ingredients that make an Immersion show such a uniting, and above all fun family experience.”

So, what you need to do is follow young Peter, as he guides Wendy and the Darling boys on an awfully big adventure as they think happy thoughts and fly high to Neverland. Once there, they will meet a collection of well-known characters, from Peter’s friends – the Lost Boys, his close friend the cheeky Tinkerbell, and then of course there is the hilarious Smee and the most feared villain of them all, the evil Captain Hook. Filled with catchy music, heaps of audience interaction (oh yes there is!), and a laugh-a-minute script makes this a hilarious and exciting musical about the boy who never grew up, one where every member of the family will be hooked!

Speaking of Hook, Thomas Cove who plays him says: “It’s such a pleasure to be teaming up again with James Tobias and the great people at Immersion Theatre. It’s not often that chances to play such an iconic character like Captain Hook come along, so as soon as the casting came up, I knew it was something I wanted to be involved with. The team who have been assembled truly bring this timeless story to life. The show is packed with Immersion’s trademark high-energy, fantastic entertainment for all ages, and the beautiful open-air venues we’ll be visiting will be in for a treat.”

The performances are outside, so audience members can take their own picnic, chairs or rugs, and drinks will be served during the interval. After the performance you may also have a chance to meet members of the cast.

Peter Pan will be performed on lawns, in our readers’ areas on the following dates:
Wednesday 8th & Thursday 9th August in Hatchlands Park, East Clandon, Surrey.
Friday, 10th August In Langley Park, Iver, Buckinghamshire.
Monday, 13th August in Shaw House, Newbury, Berkshire
Sunday, 26 & Monday, 27th August in Blenheim Palace, Woodstock, Oxfordshire.

For details and tickets, visit www.immersion theatre.co.uk

Peter Pan by Immersion Theatre

https://www.facebook.com/immersiontheatreuk/videos/1205216526284960/

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