It's nearly time for Curious Arts Festival, that blend of music, literature and comedy which introduced me to the fun of festivals. For five years it's been held at Pylewell Park in the New Forest; I went along for two of them - in 2016 and 2017- and loved it!
Now it's on the move to Pippingford Park, Sussex, where it will join forces with Byline Festival.
While Byline is all about serious hard-headed journalism, looking at contemporary culture and politics, Curious Arts will provide the arty, literary complement to it. I've covered the literary line-up over at OurBookReviewsOnline, but my picks would be Candice Carty-Williams talking about her novel Queenie, described as a politicised Bridget Jones' Diary, about a 25 year old black woman trying to straddle two cultures, and Dan Richards talking about his search for isolation and silence, which led to his book Outpost - A Journey to the Wild Ends of the Earth.
 |
| Blow Monkeys |
 |
| The Feeling |
A huge part of the Curious Arts experience for me was the food on offer. Again 'eclectic' covers it well, with choices from pizza to Iraqi street food to a three course meal at the Naturally Curious pop-up restaurant, with beer and ciders from Curious Brewing, or Chapel Down English wines to drink. You could even take part in an oyster tasting workshop. Somehow that just sums up the vibe of Curious Arts!
My weekends at Curious Arts have always been very special times and I'm a little disappointed that our plans don't allow me to go this year (I'm heading north, though, to Edinburgh for a different sort of festival fun). Maybe I'll be back another year.
No comments:
Post a Comment