Exciting line-up for this year’s Rye Arts Festival

The Festival presents an exciting mix of contemporary and classical music, literary talks, comedy, walks, theatre and children’s events at venues in and around Rye, many of which are free of charge.

As usual the Festival has come up with some big hitters, including veteran newsreader and journalist Sandy Gall, speaking of his time in Afghanistan, and why he believes it all went wrong in the war against the Taliban, and jazz giant Courtney Pine exploring bass clarinet in music from his new album.

A walk through Rye will take people back to the time of the Blitz, when the town was in the frontline of the Battle of Britain, while James Russell celebrates iconic English artists Paul Nash and Eric Ravilious in an illustrated talk.

Literary heavyweight Julius Norwich delves into his book A History of England in 100 places - from Stonehenge to the Gherkin while Adam Nicolson unravels the history of 14 families in his talk Stories from the English Gentry.

As always there is a packed and eclectic programme of music which takes in everything from classical quartets to folk, blues and a gospel choir as well as brass and even a ukulele orchestra,

There is a solid fringe festival with many venues around the town playing host to events and musicians, including a young steel band from Hastings playing in the courtyard of the historic Mermaid Inn.

There will also be theatre and dance events as well as a screening of the David Lean classic Passage to India.

For more information on all events, go to the website www.ryeartsfestival.co.uk where you can download booking forms. This year there is also a blog at www.ryefestival.blogspot.com which provides up-to-date information on this year’s exciting programme of events.

The Box Office at Phillips & Stubbs in Cinque Ports Street is open for bookings in person from 9.30am to 1.30pm Monday to Saturday.