Friday 14 – Sunday 16 July 2023
The annual John Clare Society Festival will take place as usual this year in Helpston, near Peterborough (the birthplace of John Clare) with the Midsummer Cushions Ceremony at the church on Friday 14 July in the afternoon, and the main Festival and AGM on Saturday 15 July. There will be a church service on Sunday 16 July. The theme for the Festival will be John Clare and the Spirit of Place. Each year the children from the John Clare Primary School take part in a poetry competition on our theme and it will be interesting to see what they make of this topic!
We are in the early stages of arrangements for the Festival and as yet have not confirmed a keynote speaker or musicians for our concert. There will however still be the usual stalls, open gardens, refreshments in the Village Hall and Bluebell, and folk dancing, village walks with poetry reading in the church
The Festival will be open from 10:00 a.m. on the Saturday with the AGM starting at 10.15 a.m. in the church. As those of you who have been before will remember, we have a Friends of the Festival Scheme. This is a way of offering your support for the Festival whilst ensuring you have a programme beforehand and enable you to pre-book your tickets and reserve a seat for the concert. You will also be sent a lovely poetry pack.
The Festival 2023 will be a happy and full celebration of our poet – please make a note of the date. Full details will be in our next Newsletter – we hope to see you there!
Ann Marshall – Festival Co-ordinator.
