What a brilliant first weekend of this year’s Worcester Festival – and there’s so much more still to come!
Despite the initial bad weather, celebration could be heard and felt throughout Worcester on Saturday. The magnificent Cathedral bells rang out across Worcester to mark the start of the Festival before the Mayor of Worcester officially opened the 2019 Worcester Festival in front of the Guildhall! Festival favourite Gugge 2000 then took to the stage, painting the town yellow and black with their loud, feel-good brass and percussion music, and of course Percy the Peacock was there shaking his tail feathers along too!
Official Opening by Mayor of Worcester, Allah Ditta
Gugge 2000
Drums could be heard elsewhere too, Cathedral Square in fact, where the Worcester Dragon Boat Racing Club had their new dragon boat ‘Black Dragon’ on display. Just a stone’s throw away from there, Vamos Theatre‘s Crimplene Crusaders were on the look out for any slouching, flirting and hand-holding at the Royal Porcelain Works, making sure that good old fashioned values were championed and making a few friends along the way! Make sure to catch Vamos back on the High Street this Saturday when their Midwives are on call…
Vamos Theatre: Crimplene Crusaders
Funky Faces Face Painting were back in Crowngate again this year creating superheroes, butterflies and even unicorns! They will be back next Saturday 11am-3pm in Bell Square and Friary Walk to create more fabulous designs so don’t miss them!
A Birthday Unicorn!
If you’re a foodie then you may want to take a look at the specially selected Worcester Festival menu from Cosy Club Worcester. You can select two courses off the menu for £10 or three courses for £15 during the Festival – sounds good to us! That wasn’t the only yummy looking food in Worcester on Saturday; young bakers had been busy decorating cakes for The Great ‘Junior’ Bake Off! Junior bakers brought their amazing creations to Cookmate Worcester where they went on display for the day and the public voted for the best decorated cake. Adults can join in the fun too this coming Saturday (17th August) when The Great Worcester Cake Off takes place – time to get your aprons on!
A Percy Cake!
A Bee-autiful Cake!
A Sweet Burger!
The crowds flocked to the South Quay in order to see the annual St Richard’s Hospice Duck Race on Saturday. We’re eagerly waiting to find out who won and to see if they reached their £3000 target – fingers crossed! On the same day, the St Richard’s Hospice’s Celebration Garden was planted with over a thousand vibrant, hand-crafted dragonflies surrounding St Andrew’s Spire in the city, creating a unique and colourful focal point for celebration and reflection. The dragonflies will be on display for the duration of Worcester Festival and you can donate to enjoy a dragonfly as a keepsake at the end of the two-week display. For more information and to dedicate a dragonfly in memory and celebration of a loved one, please visit https://www.strichards.org.uk/celebration-garden/.The fundraising didn’t stop there though, it continued into the night. Twenty Seven Party performed a free concert of 80s and 90s music at Huntingdon Hall with an exit collection to raise money for St Richard’s Hospice. The event was a huge success, raising a whopping £1060!
Ready… Set… Go!
St Richard’s Hospice Celebration Garden
Can you believe that was just some of what was going on the first day of Worcester Festival 2019? Well the fun didn’t stop there; the fourteenth annual Worcester Show was held as Gheluvelt Park where thousands of people turned up to look at a variety of stalls and their wares, listen to great music, eat tasty treats, take part in competitions and watch a dance or two. There was family fun at The Swan Theatre too when Aliens Love Underpants invaded their stage on Sunday, but that’s not the only ‘out of this world’ experience in Worcester though during the Festival – head on down to the Worcester City Art Gallery & Museum to view the May The Toys Be With You exhibition and then Make Your Own Martian Mask at The Hive!
Worcester Show 2019
Make Your Own Martian Mask
Whoa – what a fabulous first weekend that was!
Want to find out what else is coming up? Take a look at our online Event Guide.
