The New Year heralds great delights in Shrewsbury as we step up the pace with our organising for the 2017 Festival of LGBT History. We have released 100 tickets so far for our launch night on Friday 17th February and these have been snapped up at a record rate, with only 7 left as we write this post. We will be releasing our final tranche as soon as we have totted up the guest list!
We receive the 2016 Festival Baton from Mayor Cllr Miles Kenny
We are delighted to have not one – but two – Mayors booked to join us as both Shrewsbury and Bridgnorth are represented, and we have a real treat of a programme lined up with guest speakers: Sue Sanders, Caroline Paige, Diana Souhami, Andrew Lumsden and Peter Scott-Presland all primed to fascinate and illuminate! Yes, we do believe they will light up the room – aided by a glass of wine courtesy of our partners Barefoot Wine, delicious canapes once again provided by our local Stop! Cafe and a little light entertainment from Queer Playback Theatre who will give us a taste of things to come.
Saturday 18th February will start with a showcase from schools, colleges and our local young people’s LGBT group followed by a talk about what we mean by history and the eyes that we see it through – we are delighted to welcome James Pardoe from Chester University and Emma-Kate Lanyon from the Shrewsbury Museum & Art Gallery to join us for this.
Saturday continues with a theatre piece from Jane Hoy & Helen Sandler AKA Frances Power Cobbe and Mary Lloyd before we progress into our parallel presentation sessions with 6 presenters: Peter Roscoe, Jane Traies, Lisa Power, Peter Scott-Presland, Kate Hutchinson and Mark Hignett.
2016 Projection
Running alongside our main festival programme, we have other events:
- A projection – onto our town market hall building (15 – 18 Feb after dark)
- An exhibition at Participate Contemporary Art Space (11 – 25 Feb)
- An evening of entertainment
- A day of film
We are pleased to say that Shrewsbury will indeed be a Rainbow Place with local shops catching the bug and changing window displays for the occasion a local artist launching an exhibition entitled ‘Same But Different’ and our own Walking Map of places of LGBT significance n the town being re-printed.
We can’t wait!