Bring on the Ghouls Scream and scare events have long played a part if the Halloween celebrations in the USA and Fright Nights have now spread to the UK, with a number of seriously frightening events being organised for this weekend.
HallowScream UK, features at Crealy Adventure Park, Exeter, Devon EX5 1DR. Opening Thursday, 29 October through Saturday, 31 October. There will be spine-chilling rides in the dark. The breath of death will brush against your skin as you drop into the unknown and vile creatures from hell will stagger into your path as you are entertained by live bands and DJs.
Scare Kingdom Scream Park, produced by AtmosFEAR! Scare Attractions is situated at Hawkshaw Farm Park, on the A59 between Preston and Blackburn, BB2 7JA; it is just minutes from the M6 junction 31 and sits in the shadow of the dark foreboding Pendle Hill, home of the Pendle witches. Some lovely walks in this area but not during Halloween! Scare Kingdom is open to those who dare visit this grizzly realm until 5 November, when the kingdom will be awakened from the dark by a spectacular firework display.
Children under 10 can enjoy a spellbinding Trick or Treat, cooked up by friendly witch sisters Toil and Trouble, 45 minutes of interactive theatrical experience. featuring songs and games designed to enthrall the young ones. Families and young adults looking for an adrenalin kick will find their blood runs cold as they experience Dead Alive: Legend of the Pumpkin Man, a fright fest set amid 8 acres of rotting mist covered cornfields, where lies the ghostly ruins of Strangleweed Hollow.
More witches gather at Burley in the New Forest, when the annual Halloween festival is celebrated on Saturday, 31 October.
SAW - The Ride comes alive and offfers the ultimate horror experience on the world's most terrifying rollercoaster at Thorpe Park, KT16 8PN, which has again been transformed into a world of twisted insanity, with Fright Nights running until 1 November.
If you know of a Fright Night event near you, click on the permanent link at the end of this post and let us all know about it by leaving a comment.
Every year on November 5th thousands of people descend on the English village of Ottery St Mary in Devon, to celebrate a 17th Century tradition.in which brave participants carry burning tar barrels shoulder high through the streets. The event is a culmination of autumn festivities in the town, including an annual carnival, that takes place on the preceding Saturday, complete with a magnificent display of fireworks.
Starting with the junior barrels in late afternoon the size of the barrels get steadily bigger until the final enormous one is carried just before Midnight. A gigantic bonfire over 10 m (30 feet) high and topped with Guy Fawkes, provides the impressive background to the occasion together with a fairground and several other festive attractions.
Ottery St Mary is only an hour or so drive, to the west of Weymouth.
It seems like only yesterday that the curtain came down on last year's New Forest Show but incredibly the doors will be open again in a few weeks time for the 2009 show. The New Forest and Hampshire County Show, to give the full title, is one of the UK's top ten agricultural and equestrian shows, and runs 28, 29 and 30 July, (08.15 to 19.00 daily), As in previous years, there is plenty of free parking but with the huge quantity of cars converging on a few fields, access can be a nightmare and you may prefer to use the pay-as-you-go shuttle bus service from Brockenhurst mainline train station. The show was first held in 1921 and now attracts 90,000 visitors over the three days. It brings together traditional country pursuits, new exhibitions and practical demonstrations, with something to attract all age groups. This year, one of the highlights is sure to be the Pig Racing Championships!
The Royal Botanic Gardens at Kew, better known as Kew Gardens, celebrates its 250th anniversary in 2009, with a year of special events and exhibitions. Incredibly, the world famous gardens, with its displays of exotic orchids, wildflowers from across the world and stunning garden designs, are just over one hour from the center of London.
In March over five million bulbs are used to produce the largest spring flower display in the UK, with daffodils and snowdrops nestling in woodland and a stunning carpet of crocuses.
The photograph is of the great pagoda at Kew Gardens and was taken by Philip MacKenzie.
The first green shoots of spring are evident in the UK and for garden lovers the National Trust has selected a number of gardens, highlighted for their winter beauty. Some of the earliest flowering bulbs to provide magnificent displays are the snowdrops and some spectacular examples can be found on visits to gardens described in the Trust's article Walking in a winter wonderland.
Red Nose Day will soon be here again, Friday 13 March, 2009. It is the focus of the British Comic Relief charity and is a day that sees people doing all manner of silly things which raises money to help make other people's lives a little better.
Amongst many events and fund-raising ideas, they have sent a Dream Team of celebrities on a sponsored challenge to climb Mount Kilimanjaro and earn £1,000,000 for Comic Relief.
The team comprises: Gary Barlow Cheryl Cole Fearne Cotton Alesha Dixon Ronan Keating Chris Moyles Denise Van Outen Ben Shephard Kimberley Walsh
Sponsor the team and/or do something funny yourself on Red Nose day. Raise a smile and raise money for Comic Relief.
The world's biggest wildlife survey is celebrating its 30th birthday and the invitations are going out to join the party!
You don't have to be a Birder, anyone in the UK with an interest in birds, can participate. All that is needed is a willingness to spend just one hour over this weekend, 24-25 January, counting the birds in their garden or local park. The Big Garden Birdwatch provides easy to use identification charts and counting sheets on their website and if you are not already registered with them, simply visit their site and sign up for free.
The Big Garden Birdwatch is the world's biggest bird survey and it is great fun. By taking part you help the RSPB learn more about UK garden birds and how they are faring across the country.
Tonight kicks off a week of shrieks and bonfires across the UK and a spectacular, nine metre wicker man, created by Oxfordshire artist Dan Barton, will add to the incendiary attractions at the Oxford Round Table's annual display on Saturday, November 8, in South Park, Oxford.
If you haven't caught up with the BBC's Autumnwatch program yet, it is worth visiting the website. This year, the Autumnwatch team have set up home on Brownsea Island, just off the UK's south coast, opposite Poole Harbour.
The island, which last year was the focus of celebrations for the the 100th anniversary of the scouting movement, is well known for its populations of red squirrels, sika deer and many species of woodland and water birds.
Several hundred people taking part in the Original Mountain Marathon in England's Lake District near Keswick, have been stranded by flooding and torrential rain. Competitors in the event are all experienced fell runners but within half an hour of the start conditions and the weather had deteriorated so badly that many runners made the decision to return to the start, it seems flooding came in so quickly that even they were lucky to get out of the car park.
BBC News website readers who took part in the race, sent their accounts, including video, get the full story and reports at the BBC News website.
The UK's RNLI intends to double the size of its lifeguarding service over the next few years, providing every UK region, seasonal lifeguard cover on its beaches.
Being a charity, the RNLI needs help from the public to 'Put Life First' and meet the cost of equipment and training. Individuals and groups are invited to contact the RNLI about fund raising for the 'Put Life First' initiative.
It has just been announced that RNLI lifeguards will provide daily patrols, with the exception of Christmas Day, for Boscombe east beach, the site of the new artificial surf reef. Patrols will begin at 10am and finish at 6pm, or earlier as evenings become darker, and continue through to the start of the next summer season.
It spells the end of the summer season, on Sunday, 4 October, over 50,000 people will take part in the UK's Great North Run, 13 miles from Newcastle to South Shields. Since 1981, this half-marathon has grown into a prestigious athletic event attracting competitors from all over the world, including stars such as world marathon champion, Kenyan Luke Kibet, and Gete Wami, women's world marathon majors champion.
Liverpool, this year's European Capital of Culture, will be celebrating its annual Halloween Lantern Carnival in Sefton Park Liverpool on Friday 31st October. Enjoy some great public art from the Liverpool Lantern Company.
I recently referred to a list of Halloween events in the US but if your in the UK, how about making a scary visit to Warwick Castle, whose haunted towers and turrets are said to have been inhabited by a host of ghosts and ghouls for hundreds of years.
Between 25 October and 2 November, 2008 families can be entertained with ghost stories of a haunted castle and follow spooky Halloween trails full of creepy characters. Or, you can enjoy an eerie, after-dark, Ghosts and Ghouls Alive Supper being held on 31 October and again on 1 November, 2008. Warwick Castle is not far from Stratford on Avon and Oxford.
The PSP Southampton Boat Show begins its 40th year tomorrow, 12 September and runs through to 21 September 2008. Last year more than 127,000 visitors attended this popular boating show, which takes place next door to Lymington, home base for many of Britian's sailing stars. UK sailors have returned from Qingdao, China, with the best Olympic medal haul for over a century and gold medal winners Ben Ainslie, Paul Goodison, Iain Percy, Andrew Simpson, Sarah Ayton, Sarah Webb and Pippa Wilson, will arrive on Mike Golding's yacht Ecover 3, at 10am tomorrow, together with other Skandia Team GBR members, to formally open the show.
They will be joined by boating legends and television personalities from the past 40 years to celebrate the Southampton Boat Show's forty year history.
Cater Allen Private Bank has commisioned a survey and found that nowdays, the majority of British tourists prefer activity holidays. We could have told them that, you only have to look at the way our site visitor numbers have grown over the last five years.
Only 20% of British holidaymakers opt for lounging on a beach, while 26% indulge in some form of walking when on holiday. It seems that 1 in 8 Brits are also pretty keen on scuba diving and there are a lot of British boarders who will shortly be heading for the slopes.
Cater Allen found further evidence that Britons are changing their holiday habits, and moving away from the traditional European beach holiday when respondents stated that they wanted to go on holiday primarily for adventure.
Sunday sees the closing ceremony of the 2008 Beijing Olympics and part of the closing ceremony involves a handover to London, which becomes the next Olympic City.
The handover will be celebrated with numerous events throughout the UK, including a party in London's famous Mall, with performances from The Feeling, Il Divo, Katherine Jenkins, Russell Watson and McFly. Use the search tool on the London 2012 site to find an event near you.
Sing the Nation is organizing a series of mass city sings on August 24, at 20 BBC Big Screen / Livesites and City centres around the UK. In each participating city, community choirs will lead the public in the biggest singalong that the world has ever seen.
Following the spectacular opening ceremony that the Chinese presented for the Beijing Olympics, there has been much discussion in the UK about what on earth London could do to produce anything that would come anywhere near the 2008 opener; with tongue in cheek, it has even been pointed out that there probably wouldn't be that many performers in the UK. However, the 'Sing the Nation' initiative has prompted me to realize that historically the British have shown a great aptitude for organizing other people and events such as 'Sing the Nation' are notable for bringing people together, so the answer for 2012 is simple, organize a series of mass participation events synchronized with performers in the Olympic stadium but spread out across the UK and indeed the World. I'm on a roll here, what about a 'Mexican Wave' that starts in London and ripples around the globe.
Rory and Paddy's Great British Adventure features a number of sports that have been overlooked as Olypic events; quintessentially British sports such as such as swamp soccer, toe wrestling, bog snorkelling and cheese rolling, many of which will be familiar to regular readers of these pages.
The program runs on the UK's Channel Five for the next four weeks and features comedians Rory McGrath and Paddy McGuiness as they travelled around Britain in a camper van to seek out and participate in the most bizarre, adrenalin filled events that the country has to offer.
The UK National Amateur Gardening Show is scheduled for the 5-7 September, 2008, at the Bath & West Showground, Shepton Mallet, Somerset. They are usually blessed with glorious weather and offer spectacular garden displays, an abundance of flowers, fruit and vegetables, plus the biggest dahlia show in the world, organized by the UK National Dahlia Society.
The show is also home to the UK National Giant Vegetable Championships. Vegetables on display are not just big, they are monsters and, contrary to popular myth, having ejoyed optimum growing conditions they make good eating too. BigPumpkins.com provides an interactive web site for the giant pumpkin and squash growing community around the world. They help new comers to get started offer tips and even have a seed exchange.
Alastair Jamieson has just written an inspiring article about the Giant Vegetable Championships and the community of growers surrounding it.
One final note, the National Amateur Gardening Show also reckons to put on the best Bougainvillea (Paper Flower) display anywhere in Europe. Take a peek at a previous show on this video link.
If your in the UK and you fancy visiting an agricultural and equestrian show, you might join the other 90,000 visitors to the 2008 New Forest Show. It is on the 29, 30 and 31 July, (08.30 to 19.00 daily), there is plenty of free parking but with the huge quantity of cars converging on a few fields, access can be a nightmare and you may prefer to use the pay-as-you-go shuttle bus service from Brockenhurst mainline train station. The show was first held in 1921 and now enjoys a reputation as one of the top ten shows in the country. It brings together traditional country pursuits, new exhibitions and practical demonstrations, with something to attract all age groups. This year, visitors will be able to see Christian Moullec, flying his microlight in formation with his geese!
Having visited La Rochelle, Salvador, Durban, Fremantle, Singapore, Qingdao, Hawaii, the west coast of the USA, the Caribbean, New York and Cork, contestants in the Clipper Round the World Yacht Race, which started in Liverpool last September, are just hours away from their return to Liverpool.
The fleet of 10 ocean racing yachts, each backed by a different international city and crewed by non-professional sailors, will have covered 35,000 miles to complete their circumnavigation; the nautical equivilent of climbing Everest.
Springwatch, a three-week celebration of UK wildlife is back, with the usual mix of live and interactive, wildlife filming and discussion from around Britain. The television program runs on BBC Two through until 12 June, 2008 and the web site contains video clips, webcams, blogs, forums and message boards.
You might also be interested in Bill Oddie's practical guide to enjoying the wildlife of Britain. Organised into a monthly calendar, Bill writes about the best places to visit, how to catch a glimpse of the UK's best-loved species, and things to do for each month of the year. There is also a DVD available.
This year's Festival of Speed at Goodwood runs through 11-13 July, with the theme 'Hawthorn to Hamilton – Britain's Love Affair with World Motor Sport'. Fifty years ago Mike Hawthorn became Britain's first Formula 1 World Champion and current F1 star, Lewis Hamilton, needs no introduction; he has confirmed that he will be attending the event.
Britain has always played a key role in the global motor racing industry and recognising the important role that Britain has played in shaping motor sport worldwide, the Festival is celebrating the influence and achievements of iconic British figures, including Stirling Moss, Jim Clark, John Surtees, Colin McRae, Roger Clark, James Hunt, Barry Sheene, Jackie Stewart, Derek Bell, Colin Chapman, Adrian Newey and British-based Gordon Murray. As always, the Festival will also feature the world's finest competition cars and motorcycles, making the Goodwood Festival of Speed a must for the motorhead calender.
This is a holiday weekend in the UK and a two-day show is taking place at the Heritage Motor Centre, in Gaydon, Warwickshire, to celebrate 60 years of the Land Rover. Sunday, features the Classic Run, when over 100 classic Land Rovers from the Association of Land Rover Clubs will travel from the Solihull Land Rover factory to the Heritage Motor Centre. Thanks to Karl from dnadublin.com for the pic.
If you have a taste for adventure and 23 days to spare, you will soon be able to take a 7,000 mile rail journey from London in the UK to Dhaka, the capital of Bangladesh. Of course, to really enjoy the trip you may want to explore some of the venerable cities on route.
The United Nations-sponsored scheme, links London, Brussels, Cologne, Vienna, Bucharest, Istanbul, Tehran, Quetta, Lahore, Amritsar, Delhi, Calcutta and Dhaka; it incorporates one of the old Trans-Asian Silk Paths and is already laying claim to being the world's greatest railway journey.
Today, the UK government published a draft Marine Bill which would provide protection for the UK's coastline and seas, and which would also give the public, freedom to walk around the entire English coast.
The proposed legislation contains the creation of a network of marine reserves, a new Marine Management Organisation and extends the right to roam. However, it could be a couple of years before it becomes law. More.
The Cornish are a fiecely patriotic people and they certainly do not consider themselves to be English. With Celtic blood running through their veins, they keep alive many pagan traditions.
Every year on the 8 May, the small town of Helston, Cornwall, UK, celebrates one such traddition, welcoming the return of spring. For hundeds of years, revellers dance from dawn to dusk, in what is known as the Furry Dance, Probably better known to people outside Cornwall as the Cornish Floral Dance.
Zooidpix, who posted this video, informs us that "Throughout the Flora Day, the population perform the Furry (or Faddy) Dance in long procession through the banks, shops, houses and streets, all decorated with greenery and flowers, following the town silver and brass band as they endlessly repeat their unique, mesmerising tune from 7am to about 7pm when the final dance ends."
Fashion Fringe, now in its fith year, was concceived by Colin McDowell as a dynamic fringe event to coincide with London Fashion Week; it helps to support and promote young talent in the British fashion industry. Created in 2004 by IMG global sports, entertainment and media company, under the creative direction of Colin McDowell, who is a fashion historian and senior fashion writer for the Sunday Times Style Magazine, the event offers the winner the opportunity to create their own fashion company, with a prize of more than £100,000, together with mentoring, business support, PR and legal advice.
Applicants (Design Duos are also permitted to enter) must have been resident in the UK or Eire for 3 years or more, or have a valid work permit until 2012, and they must also be over the age of 21 to enter. Closing Date for Applications is 2 May 2008 and you can apply online.
There will be plenty of activities on offer. You can get a taster dive session, scale a wall of ice, tackle high ropes and try out a mountain bike on a dirt track. Then you can listen to first-hand accounts of the travels of famous adventurers and learn how to explore the world yourself. There will be the usual map-reading tutorials and also the opportunity to learn about surviving in the wild.
The UK's local independent television network, ITV Local, has just launched a terrific resource for the independent traveller in the UK.
ITV Local: Travel News provides real-time traffic and travel news for England, Wales and the Scottish Borders. It has easy to use, live interactive traffic maps, road traffic cameras from the Highways Agency and Transport for London, plus rail, tube, air and sea alerts.
The UK's Big Garden Birdwatch Saturday 26 or Sunday 27 January 2008 and is the world's biggest bird survey, so when looking for a suitable end of week video theme, there really wasn't any competition for this weekend.
Thanks to Frank of the TheZanyFilmCompany for providing this week's wonderful video photo-gallery showing 25 of the birds that Brits might expect to see in their gardens (yards) and parks. Last year a staggering 400,000 people took part in the RSPB's Big Garden Birdwatch by counting 6 million birds in 236,000 gardens. This year it is thought that there might be over half a million participants. Frank's video is accompanied by the relaxing concerto for pinaforte & orchestra KV466 Allegro by W.A.Mozart; conductor Wilhelm Furtwangler, Yvonne Lefebure piano.
Taking part in the Big Garden Birdwatch is simple. All that participants need to do is to watch their garden or local park for just one hour, at any time on either Saturday 26 or Sunday 27 January 2008, recording the highest number of each species seen (not counting those flying over) at any one time. Only the maximum number of each species seen at any one time, is recorded, because then the same bird cannot be counted more than once.
The RSPB counting sheet can be used to help keep track of how many birds have been seen. The sheet has pictures of the most common birds seen in British gardens and spaces to tick off how many of each species are seen together. Don't send the counting sheet back to the RSPB, it is just to help participants record their counts, from 26 January 2008 enter the counts online, using a simple results form.
To download the recording sheet, you need Adobe Reader version 4 or higher. This software is safe, easy to instal and available free from the Adobe website so, if you don't have it on your computer already, just download a copy now.
The Daily Telegraph's Adventure Travel Show returns on Friday 25 through Sunday 27, January 2008 and this year is at the Business Design Centre, Islington, London.
Opening Times are: Friday 25th January – 12pm– 8pm, Saturday 26th January – 10am – 6pm, and Sunday 27th – 10am – 4pm.
Find plenty of inspiration and practical advice, with more than 100 free talks including expert knowledge about remote and exotic locations, real life experiences, hints, tips and celebrity appearances.
This year's National Tree Week in the UK, runs from 21 November to 3 December, 2007. An annual event that was begun in 1975, it has been responsible for the planting of over 20 million trees.
"National Tree Week," say the Tree Council, "is the ideal opportunity to do one great thing for the environment, plant a tree."
Are you interested in helping the British Trust for Ornithology (BTO) to follow the changing fortunes of British garden birds? Are you a UK resident and do you have Harlequin Ladybirds in your garden? If the answer to either of these questions is 'yes' then the BTO/CJ Garden BirdWatch Team would like to hear from you. Contact them on 01842-750050 or email gbw@bto.org to request a free information pack.
Nature produces the ultimate tapestry of colour with every leaf fall. As noted in my previous post, the dazzling colours have fuelled a billion dollar tourist industry in America's north-east .
But it is not just the Americans that make 'leaf peeping' a national obsession. The Japanese have a special word, momijigari, which describes watching the changing colours of trees in autumn, and climate change has resulted in Britain experiencing riots of colour that match the legendary displays of Vermont, making 'leaf peeping' in Britain, every bit as big an activity.
To satisfy the demands of 'leaf peepers' to view the best displays of autumn colour, the Forestry Commission provides interactive maps of the best places to see foliage colours across the whole of the UK.
Autumnwatch in the UK has started for 2007 and the Woodland Trust are recording the first instances of seasonal events, this includes great interactive maps of the first autumn tinting and leaf fall.
Plenty of noise, loads of smoke and lots of people in oily boiler suits, walking around the small UK village of Tarrant Hinton, all indicate that this weekend is the middle of the annual Great Dorset Steam Fair, 29 August to 2 September, 2007. A bit like an alternative Burning Man Festival, the fair rejoices in bygone days, when most people's knowledge of a carbon footprint was that which appeared on the seat of slacking apprentices. Then after a week of chaos, the site returns to green fields and pastural calm. As always, there is plenty to see and do; a day is hardly enough time to enjoy everything on offer. The Great Dorset Steam Fair is regarded as the leading steam and vintage preservation event in the world and is attended every year by well over 200,000 people from around the globe.
According to DEFRA, the UK Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, apart from small, designated zones, the UK countryside remains open to visitors. There is no need for people to stop visiting the countryside, which is great news for walkers, cyclists and climbers.
There is an interactive map of Protection, Surveillance or Restricted Zones and you can enter a place name, postcode or map reference to check if it is in a designated zone.
Foot and Mouth disease is a disease of cattle and very few human cases have ever been recorded, even though the disease is endemic in animals in many parts of the world. The last human case reported in Britain occurred in 1966. The disease in humans, is mild, short-lived and requires no medical treatment. However, it is highly infectious in cattle and easily spread, hence the need for restrictions and special bio-safety precautions in designated areas.
Defra encourages users of the countryside to apply common sense precautions and follow standard practice in the countryside:
Do not stray from the right of way onto grazing land.
Avoid walking amongst livestock.
Never touch or handle livestock.
Keep dogs on a lead where there may be livestock.
Take any waste, including food, home.
Use any disinfectant footpads or baths which the landowner provides.
Specific restrictions and recommendations apply to the movements of horses and dogs in a Protection Zone.
30 July to 5 August 2007, is National Parks Week in the UK, a celebration of its 14 National Parks. They are large areas of land throughout England, Wales and Scotland, containing the finest landscapes in the UK, considered worthy of special protection for the benefit of the nation, and are available for everyone to enjoy free of charge. A whole range of events are being held in each of the National Parks (Brecon Beacons, The Broads, Cairngorms, Dartmoor, Exmoor, Lake District, Loch Lomond and The Trossachs, New Forest, Northumberland, North York Moors, Peak District, Pembrokeshire Coast, Snowdonia, Yorkshire Dales). Each park has its own character and there is something for everyone to enjoy. Picnics in the Park, beach art, dry stone walling demonstrations, guided walks and canoe safaris are just a few of the activities and adventures on offer. Go to the UK National Parks' website for details of the National Parks Week Events.
We have lots of Family Activity Holidays and breaks to choose from in our specialised directory.
Few people could be unaware that the UK has experienced exceptional rainfall. It seems that the cause is global warming, which has resulted in the Gulf Stream shifting its position. The almost continual rain, punctuated by torrential downpours has led to flooding throughout much of the UK, most recently in the heart of the country.
There has been a great deal of media attention on major tourist areas such as Shakespeare's Stratford upon Avon but thankfully the town itself did not suffer too badly, the surrounding areas were badly affected, though the flood waters are beginning to subside and transport links are unaffected. This is great news for festival goers who are converging on Long Marston Airport, just outside Stratford upon Avon, for the Global Gathering Festival, Friday 27 and Saturday 28 July, 2007. The organizers have confirmed that the site remains unaffected by the floods and that the festival is on. Come rain or come shine this weekend, Faithless, Basement Jaxx, 150 top DJs and 50,000 revellers will be partying at the biggest dance event in the world.
Today is the start of 'Save Our Butterflies Week' in the UK, 21 - 29 July, 2007, and there are many events throughout the country, organized by Butterfly Conservation. Britain has 55 resident butterfly species and several more regular visitors from abroad but five butterflies have become extinct in the UK in the last 150 years and many species have become endangered in recent years. Butterfly Conservation has instituted an extensive conservation programme to raise awareness and save them.
Find some interesting Nature Holidays in our extensive list of activity vacations.
Tomorrow morning, 17 July, 2007, visitors to the Southbank will see a model of the Taj Mahal sail up the Thames to London Bridge Pier, marking the beginning of India Now, a three-month festival in the UK's capital which will showcase India's contribution to world culture. This is the most comprehensive festival of culture ever to be staged in London and celebrates the riches of India's diverse and dazzling traditions, including new Indian trends across art, film, theatre, food, music and fashion. The festival is to be launched by London Mayor Ken Livingstone, together with a host of celebrities, including Bollywood actress Shilpa Shetty, English actress Joanne Lumbley and Indian cricket team, Rahul Dravid.
At Wimbledon, the Women's final is scheduled for 2 p.m. Saturday and rain permitting, the Men's final will start at 2 p.m. Sunday. The Tour de France begins on Saturday with a prologue in London, before proceeding across the Chanel for a three week race around France which end in Paris on July 29. And at 1pm Sunday, all eyes will be on Lewis Hamilton, competing in the British Grand Prix at Silverstone.
Incredibly, after the wettest June in the UK for 150 years, the weather is forecast to be dry and sunny, which gives me a nice link to climate in crisis and a note that Saturday's activities will be held against a background of 24 hours of music on 7 continents, courtesy of the Live Earth concerts.
Liverpool, UK, is gearing up for major events to celebrate the 800th anniversary of its first royal charter. There will be one hell of a party around August, including the Hub, billed as the UK's largest, free, urban youth festival, which takes place at Otterspool Promenade on 14 and 15 July, 2007. Then next year, Liverpool becomes the European Capital of Culture 2008; this year's European Capital of Culture is Sibiu, Romania.
Hub is into its fifth year, and promises two days of live music, skating, skateboarders, parkour, BMX bikers, adrenaline wind tunnel, street art, urban fashion and more.
Ian Youngs has written a great piece about surviving the Glastonbury Festival mudbath. UK festival goers are looking forward to this weekend's Glastonbury Festival but true to form, the weather forecast suggests it is, as Ian graphically puts it, 'shaping up to be a full-on glorious mudfest'.
1997, 1998 and 2005, saw so much rain and mud that the dates have passed into festival legend. There are some great photos accompanying the article, including one from 2005 with the caption 'Come prepared - but not necessarily that well prepared'; the picture shows a couple of guys paddling across the camping ground in a canoe!
If you chicken out or just couldn't get tickets, you can enjoy the festival coverage by the BBC. They are even providing a webcam and live streaming of performances.
For the first time in four hundred years, a group of actors will tour a Shakespeare play, Romeo and Juliet, out of the Globe theatre. Like the Elizabethan players before them, they will be performing not in theatres, but in a collection of the UK's most picturesque and historically resonant settings. As a climax, they will present a one-off performance at the 'home of cricket', Lords.
The troupe of actors will entertain outdoor audiences with a stripped down version of Shakespeare's classic love story, true to the old principles of touring theatre. Recent historical evidence has indicated that touring was regularly undertaken by Shakespeare's theatre company.
Dates, venues and box office numbers: 17 June Shakespeare's Globe Box office 020 7401 9919 / 020 7087 7398 19 to 24 June West End Festival, Glasgow Box office 0870 220 1116 26 to 28 June Williamson Park, Lancaster Box office 01524 33318 29 June to 1 July Pavilion Gardens, Buxton, Derbyshire Box office 0845 127 2190 3 to 8 July Queens Square, Bristol Box office 0117 987 7877 (Bristol Old Vic) 11–15 July Leeds Castle, Maidstone, Kent Box office 01622 880008 16 July Wimbledon Cannizaro Park Festival Box office 0870 060 2512 18–20 July Sterts Theatre, near Liskeard, Cornwall Box office 01579 362382 21 to 22 July Trelissick Gardens, Truro, Cornwall Box office 01872 862 090 31 July to 2 Aug Hedingham Castle, Halstead, Essex Box office 01787 460 261 3 to 5 Aug Belvoir Castle, Grantham, Leicestershire Box office 01664 851111 (Melton Theatre) 7 to 10 Aug Claremont Gardens, Esher, Surrey Box ffice 0870 240 4068 11 to 16 Aug Wadham College, Oxford Box office 0870 609 2231 (Oxford Shakespeare Company) 17 to 19 Aug Newby Hall, Ripon, Yorkshire Box office 01423 322 583 21 to 23 Aug Hopetoun House, near Edinburgh Box office 0131 226 0000 (from 11 June) 24 to 26 Aug Alnwick Castle, Alnwick, Northumberland Box office 01665 511162 2 Sept Lord's Cricket Ground, London
Here is an idyllic scene to remove end of week stress. It is a video of a wildflower meadow in Londonthorpe Wood, nr. Grantham, Lincolnshire, U.K., taken just a few days ago and posted by 'VideoPostcards'. Summer came early to the UK this year and poppies are in full bloom.
Londonthorpe Wood is part of the Woodland Trust, which aims to conserve, restore and re-establish UK woodlands. A woodland is an area of land covered by trees and shrubs but generally regarded as smaller than a forest; woods are characterised by more glades and open grassland. At present, The Woodland Trust cares for over 1,000 woods, each with free public access. You can search for woods in a particular area using the Woodland Trust website.
The annual Cooper's Hill Cheese Rolling took place last weekend at Cooper's Hill, Gloucester, UK, and SoGlos.com have kindly provided a video of the madcap event. Even the spectators are at risk but thankfully, this year there were only a few minor injuries reported.
Spark of Genius - Breaking Records, Pushing Boundaries, is the theme for the 2007 Goodwood Festival of Speed which will be held over the weekend of 22-24 June in the picturesque parkland surrounding Goodwood House. The UK festival is motor racing's equivalent of Ascot or Wimbledon and provides an annual extravaganza of sound and colour.
Motor racing was first featured at Goodwood during 1936 when the 9th Duke of Richmond held a private hillclimb through the park and then in 1948 he opened the Goodwood Motor Circuit. These early events inspired his grandson, the present Earl of March, to bring motor sport back to Goodwood which resulted in the first Festival of Speed, held in 1993.
Breaking Records and Pushing Boundaries were the Bugatti Royales, one of which remains the most expensive car ever sold at auction, reaching $8.7 million in 1987. For the first time ever at a major European event, at least four Bugatti Royales (of the six built) will come together. Celebrating 80 years since its introduction, the incredible Type 41 Royale was built by Ettore Bugatti exclusively for Royalty and heads of state. Due it its size, opulence and rarity, each car became an immediate collectors’ piece.
p.s. Goodwood goes Green
Another innovation at the 2007 Festival will be a thrilling race by top motor sport stars using the ultimate environmentally friendly vehicles – bicycles!
On the 24 May, 2007, The Cotswold Way officially opens as a UK National Trail, a long distance walking trail of 102 miles (164 km) between the Roman City of Bath and the small town of Chipping Campden.
The Trail runs for much of its length along the Cotswold escarpment, providing wonderful views of a quintessential English landscape and passing through many picturesque villages built with the characteristic, mellow, yellow limestone of the Cotswolds. It also passes close to a number of historic sites, such as the Roman heritage site at Bath, the Neolithic burial chamber at Belas Knap, Sudeley Castle near Winchcombe and Hailes Abbey.
Chipping Campden is notable for being the home of the British Arts and Crafts movement, founded by William Morris at the end of the 19th century. It is also known for the annual Cotswold Games, which dates back to the early 17th century and includes some odd country sports like Shin Kicking! The town is just a stone's throw from Shakespeare's Stratford-upon-Avon and even closer to Broadway, which has a long association with artists, writers and musicians, including Henry James, J.M.Barrie,Vaughan Williams, Edward Elgar, and American artists Francis Davis Millet and John Singer Sargent. 2007 is the 150th anniversary of Edward Elgar's birth.
It seems early to be thinking about Christmas but some opportunities are so fantastic, you have to grab them as soon as they are presented to you. Deep within a forest, at the summit of a volcano, exists an extraordinary world, a world of possibilities, a world called Varekai.
In the Romany language, the word 'Varekai' means 'wherever' and is the title of Cirque Du Soleil's new production at the Royal Albert Hall, London, UK, paying tribute to the nomadic soul, to the spirit, the art of the circus tradition, and to the infinite passion of those whose quest takes them along the path that leads to Varekai.
The story of Varekai begins with a solitary young man falling from the sky, parachuted into the shadows of a magical forest, a kaleidoscopic world populated by fantastical creatures, the scene is set for an extraordinary adventure on an inspired incantation to life rediscovered. And the Cirque Du Soleil performers are technically brilliant, I really cannot think of a more magical way of enjoying the Christmas season. The production opens 10 January, 2008 and runs to 3 February, 2008. Buy your tickets for Cirque Du Soleil from Ticketmaster now and then enjoy the summer!
With warm spring sunshine forecast for most of the UK this Easter holiday, many people will be out and about visiting gardens and many of the gardens will be taking part in the National Gardens Scheme (NGS).
He showed me lilies for my hair And blushing roses for my brow He led me through his garden fair Where all his golden pleasures grow.
From "How Sweet I Roam'd" by William Blake.
The NGS registers nearly 3,500 gardens (mostly private) that are open to the public, in order to raise money for charity; over 530 new gardens have joined the scheme this year.
In the ten years since 1997, more than £15 million has been raised for nursing, gardening and caring charities.
A small video clip that illustrates why people flock to the UK's Lake District for rock climbing. It is a trailer for a rock climbing film featuring Dave Birkett, one of the UK's best rock climbers.
OK, so here's a bit of advanced notice for all you real ale enthusiasts. Get those taste buds tuned up, the Maltings Beer Festival in Newton Abbot, Devon will take place on 12th 13th & 14th April 2007, that is the week-end after Easter. One of the UK's premier beer festivals, the Maltings Beer Festival always begins on the third Thursday in April and attracts more than 3500 lovers of real ale, who gather to sample beers from around 35 breweries.
It takes place in Tuckers Maltings, a Victorian malthouse, about a quarter of a mile (400 metres) from the railway station; if you take the train you could easily walk to the festival, though you may be wise to book someone to carry you back to the train for the return journey!
Tuckers Maltings is one of the few floor Maltings still producing malt in the traditional way and are believed to be the only traditional Maltings in England that is open to the public for guided tours.
Newton Abbott is on the edge of Dartmoor, so you can always make a week of it and take a few good hikes to build up a thirst.
From 3 February to 4 March, 2007, the Royal Botanic Gardens at Kew is displaying over 30,000 tropical plants in its huge, glass, Princess of Wales Conservatory. Reckoned to be the largest display of tropical colour in the UK, the 'Tropical Flower and Orchid Festival (Tropical Extravaganza)' features orchids, anthuriums, maranta and bromeliads.
If you plan a visit on Valentine's day, you can treat the special person in your life to the ultimate romantic experience. Tropical Valentine's events offer unlimited champagne and canapes, plus, for those that really mean to impress, a short walk to the eighteenth century Orangery for an intimate dinner for two.
Scream and scare events have long played a part if the Halloween celebrations in the USA and Fright Nights have now spread to the UK, with a number of seriously frightening events being organised for this weekend.
Children under 10 can enjoy a spellbinding Trick or Treat, cooked up by friendly witch sisters Toil and Trouble, 45 minutes of interactive theatrical experience. featuring songs and games designed to enthrall the young ones. Families and young adults looking for an adrenalin kick will find their blood runs cold as they experience Dead Alive: Legend of the Pumpkin Man, a fright fest set amid 8 acres of rotting mist covered cornfields, where lies the ghostly ruins of Strangleweed Hollow.
Some of the earliest flowering bulbs to provide magnificent displays are the snowdrops and some spectacular examples can be found on visits to gardens described in the Trust's article 
UK sailors have returned from Qingdao, China, with the best Olympic medal haul for over a century and gold medal winners Ben Ainslie, Paul Goodison, Iain Percy, Andrew Simpson, Sarah Ayton, Sarah Webb and Pippa Wilson, will arrive on Mike Golding's yacht Ecover 3, at 10am tomorrow, together with other Skandia Team GBR members, to formally open the show.
Sunday, features the Classic Run, when over 100 classic Land Rovers from the Association of Land Rover Clubs will travel from the Solihull Land Rover factory to the Heritage Motor Centre. Thanks to Karl from dnadublin.com for the pic.
A whole range of events are being held in each of the National Parks (Brecon Beacons, The Broads, Cairngorms, Dartmoor, Exmoor, Lake District, Loch Lomond and The Trossachs, New Forest, Northumberland, North York Moors, Peak District, Pembrokeshire Coast, Snowdonia, Yorkshire Dales). Each park has its own character and there is something for everyone to enjoy. Picnics in the Park, beach art, dry stone walling demonstrations, guided walks and canoe safaris are just a few of the activities and adventures on offer. Go to the UK National Parks' website for details of the 
Britain has 55 resident butterfly species and several more regular visitors from abroad but five butterflies have become extinct in the UK in the last 150 years and many species have become endangered in recent years. Butterfly Conservation has instituted an extensive conservation programme to raise awareness and save them.
The UK festival is motor racing's equivalent of Ascot or Wimbledon and provides an annual extravaganza of sound and colour.
