Thanks to Janneke for sharing details of the first acts to be booked for the 2014 Isle of Arts Festival.
Opening the festival, on Friday 2nd May, will be well-known gardener and BBC presenter Monty Don, speaking about his travels visiting gardens across the world, what really happens behind the scenes when filming, how he made his own organic garden and how understanding nature can enrich all our lives. This event is sponsored by the Ventnor Botanic Garden.
Monty’s TV credits include Gardeners’ World and Around the World in 80 Gardens, and in 2014 he will be presenting the Chelsea Flower Show for the BBC.
Liverpool poet Roger McGough
Another Isle of Arts first will be the appearance of Roger McGough on Saturday 3rd May. Hilarious and surreal, he is a poet of many voices. Menace and melancholy there may be, but with plenty of McGough’s characteristic wit and wordplay too.
From his early life in Liverpool, joining the Scaffold, and working with the Beatles, to his current roles as both a children’s poetry writer and a “serious poet”, his inspirations are many and varied and the end result is a spell-binding performance.
First World War celebrations
In The Pity of War, on Sunday 4th May, virtuoso violinist Matthew Trusler is joined by internationally renowned pianist Martin Roscoe in performances of sonatas by Elgar, Janácek and Debussy, all written during the Great War.
Accompanying the music are readings spoken by screen and stage actor Timothy West which draw on Wilfred Owen’s letters and poems, mainly written between 1917 and 1918. They reveal Owen’s moral courage and humanity triumphing over the worst possible conditions.
This show has been created in association with the Imperial War Museum.
Return of Rich Hall
Also on Sunday, we will welcome back the grouchy, deadpan, comic genius that is Rich Hall. Looking like a Pearl Jam roadie, Rich is a master of absurdist irony while eschewing the human condition. He particularly likes to lay into Americans and life across the Pond at every opportunity.
His appearance in 2011 was a sell-out so we are very happy to be able to bring him back to the Isle of Wight!
More acts will be announced in the next few weeks, and tickets will be available by the end of December.
