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The Festival started with
a great party in St Michael's Church on the Friday night before
Green Days. As usual, there was a queue to get into the preview
of the Bedford Park Summer Exhibition, which this year was advertised
with a striking poster by Penny Madden, again with sponsorship
from The
Green. Several hundred people were there, viewing and buying
the paintings, catching up with friends and enjoying the live
jazz music, champagne and other refreshments. The work was of
a particularly high standard this year and with a third of the
proceeds going to Festival funds, another large sum was raised.
After the heat and excitement of Green Days weekend,
it was refreshing to come into the cool and quiet of the church
on the Sunday evening, for a concert of Bach by Candlelight. The
church was again packed as the West London Bach Consort and Players
under Radio 3's Sandy Burnett performed the latest in their series
of Bach Cantata concerts.
Monday brought one of the highlights of the Festival:
an illustrated talk by the artist Sir Peter Blake, in conversation
with Margaret Stonborough. He was highly entertaining, discussing
his early career and life in the Sixties, when he created one
of the world‚s iconic images, the album sleeve for Sgt Pepper‚s
Lonely Hearts Club Band. Famously, he received only £200
for it and it still rankles: when asked by one of the audience
what he would change about the picture if he could, he said "The
contract!". The evening was sponsored by Oliver
Bonas in Turnham Green Terrace.
On Thursday, in St Michael's Parish Hall, two local
poets: Anne-Marie Fyfe and Cahal Dallat - led the readings on
the theme of Poetry & Motion. Actor John Rowe, the vicar Father
Kevin Morris and more than 20 members of the audience also read
favourite poems. During the interval Cahal distributed a highly
entertaining literary travel quiz, and performed songs from around
the world on his piano accordion. The event was sponsored by Priory
Shipping Ltd.
The following night Sandy Burnett returned to lead
his jazz quartet in a stimulating evening of improvisation and
harmony in the church. Veteran guitarist Phil Lee, saxophonist
Martin Hathaway and young pianist Leon Greening, plus Sandy on
bass, performed a varied programme. The evening was sponsored
by WestSide
magazine.
Over the middle weekend, more than 150 people watched
Musical Mayhem, a celebration of The Musical in song and dance,
performed with remarkable accomplishment by St Michael's Junior
Choir and a young band. They rewarded the young cast with loud
applause for the highly enjoyable production.
As well as some entertaining group numbers, including
several from Oliver, there were excellent solos. From West Side
Story, there was Somewhere by Milly Forrest and a tongue-in-cheek
version of I Feel Pretty, featuring Daniel Pirie. Francesca Bailey
led the choir in Do-Re-Mi from The Sound of Music, and from My
Fair Lady there was an entertaining performance of Get Me To the
Church on Time, featuring James Porter as the drunken dustman,
Alfred P. Doolittle, with four cronies.
From Annie, Alice Kent sang Tomorrow and Charlotte
Keith Maybe, and from Gentlemen Prefer Blondes there was a vampish
performance of Diamonds Are A Girl's Best Friend by Jocelyn Juritz,
which prompted huge applause. Eleanor Douglas sang Wonderful Copenhagen
from Hans Christian Andersen. Other highlights included the Teddy
Bears' Picnic by the younger children and Sausage Rock 'n' Roll
from the musical Divine Pursuits by local composer Cecilia McDowell,
in which all the dancers wore 'pig' masks!
Much of the show's success must be credited to the
choreographer, 16-year-old Harriet Preston, who last year played
Miss Hannigan in the Festival production of Annie and the previous
year played Nancy in Oliver. She coaxed remarkably accomplished
performances out of the children, as did the musical director
Phoebe Woollam.
Many parents helped with the costumes, set design
and technical production and half a dozen young musicians also
played a large part in the show's success. It was sponsored by
Letts, the educational
publisher, based in Chiswick High Road.
On the Sunday, there was a highly entertaining evening in the
studio in Blenheim Road. In Beginning and Ends, actor John Griffiths,
with pianist Paul Knight, took a lighthearted look at the ups
and downs of an actor‚s life, with anecdotes, songs and gossip.
On the second Monday, the Festival provided an alternative
to England's Euro 2004 match for non-football fans! In Flair with
Flowers, Pam Ford - a Chelsea silver medal winner - entertained
a keen audience with a demonstration of six flower arrangements
in St Michael's Parish Hall.
On the Wednesday, local resident David Juritz, leader
of the distinguished London Mozart Players, led some of his equally
talented friends in a delightful Summer Serenade in the church.
It was followed by an excellent supper for 80 in the Hall, after
which the musicians continued their entertainment.
The next evening in the Parish Hall (clashing with
another England football match), local actor and director Gareth
Armstrong previewed his new book A Case For Shylock ˆ Around the
world with Shakespeare's Jew. He told a small but enthusiastic
audience why he'd forsaken Radio 4's The Archers, where he'd played
three separate characters, to tour the world with his one-man
show, amusingly describing the joys and perils of being a roving
ambassador for the Bard.
The second Friday of the Festival saw Alice Grattan
give a sold-out song recital at lunchtime, accompanied on the
piano by Alexandra Cornforth, hosted by Rosalind Leney in her
studio. It is always a delight to hear a young singer of promise.
Her well chosen programme was well-presented and delightfully
sung. We had the added pleasure of hearing Louise Grattan, Alice's
mother and, incidentally, leader of the Bedford Park Festival
Orchestra, read the W H Auden poems set by Benjamin Britten, that
Alice then sang.
On the final weekend, there was something for everyone.
On the Saturday morning, 50 children took part in Troy Story,
playing gods, goddesses, soldiers, sailors and sheeps. The play
was written and produced by Sarah Lenton, with two professional
actors - Giles Taylor and Nicholas Rowe - and opera director Karen
Gillingham, plus 20 cardboard boxes, which took the parts of castles,
mountains and of course the Trojan Horse. After less than an hour's
rehearsal, they gave their performance in front of more than 50
parents and others in the church, to great applause.
That evening, there was a wonderful Champagne Piano
Recital in one of the beautiful houses in Woodstock Road, courtesy
of the owners Jane and Kenny McKenzie. International concert pianist
Peter Bithell played Debussy's Preludes beautifully. The event
had been sold out for weeks and, before and afterwards, those
lucky enough to get tickets mingled in the garden over champagne
and canapés.
The Church was packed out on Sunday morning for
the Festival Mass, specially composed by local musician Bernard
Hughes to commemorate St Michael's 125th anniversary. In the afternoon,
more than 250 people visited up to a dozen of the finest gardens
in Bedford Park, while the local architect John Scott led a party
of 40 on a tour of the most notable buildings in the world's first
garden suburb. Many got soaked by a sudden downpour, just as the
afternoon was coming to a close, reparing to the Hall for a cream
tea and to get dry!
Throughout the weekend, dozens of people visited
the Photographic Exhibition in the elegant Michael Room, upstairs
in St Michael's Parish Hall. More than 40 photographers had entered
over 250 pictures and the winners were voted for by the visitors.
The overall winner, Best in Show, was one of the young entrants
- Jocelyn Juritz - for a wonderful picture of a cat yawning. She
and the other category winners received prizes generously donated
by Snappy Snaps
in Chiswick High Road. The winners of each category were:
A. Essentially Bedford Park
- Paul Williamson
B. Portraits and People - Malcolm Webster
C. Animals - Sally Phipps-Hornby
D. Places - Rural or Urban - Charles Gervais
E. Plants, Trees, Flowers - Clive Robinson
F. Humour - Brian Boothby
G. Miscellaneous - Jonathan Hibberd
H. Young entrant - 4-11 - Alice Webster
I. Young entrant - 12-16 - Jocelyn Juritz
Best in Exhibition - Jocelyn Juritz.
"The weekend was a wonderful end to the Festival,
which again has been one of the best ever" said Father Kevin
Morris. "The atmosphere throughout the fortnight was remarkable
and I'd like to thank all those who gave so freely of their time
and energy to create such a feeling of goodwill and to raise many
thousands of pounds for our local charities, including St Michael's."
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