Launch of Fringe Festival as visitor numbers predicted to reach 15,000
A toast to three weeks of art, music, theatre and comedy was raised at the launch of the Ludlow Fringe Festival.
The great and good, the talented and creative gathered at the Blue Boar on Mill Street to mark the town's summer arts festival which will kick off proper tomorrow.
For a list of the top events taking place at the festival click here
The Church of St Laurence's Summer Arts Festival meanwhile is taking place this week, finishing with a candlelight gala dinner in the church's nave on Sunday.
More than 15,000 are expect to attend during the Fringe Festival. Festival director Anita Bigsby said: "There is such a lot of things to do but it will all come together eventually. It's a massive effort on the part of the town."
She said hundreds were involved in stewarding, volunteering, exhibiting and performing, with events ranging from ticketed concerts and comedy gigs to free street theatre.
It will kick off with the Live Paint Jam organised by Ludlow Arts Society where artists will create works on huge boards in front of visitors to Castle Square from 10am. Among those joining in will be Charlie Adlard, the illustrator best known for his work on the hugely popular Walking Dead comic book series that spawned the hit TV show.
Across the weekend there will also be workshops and theatre events, including the British premiere of The Little Prince by Spanish company The Amateurs – whose director Ivan Andrade has been supervising workshops with Ludlow schoolchildren all this week – outdoors in Millenium Green.
At Ludlow Methodist Church there will be Lucky Dog Theatre's Hats Off to Laurel and Hardy which received rave reviews at last year's Edinburgh Fringe, and at The Sitting Room, the Pentabus Young Writers will put on their new play Last Journey.
Highlights in the coming weeks will include Michael Burdett's show Strange Face, where he talks about discovering a long-lost Nick Drake recording, and sharing it with hundreds of randomly-stopped strangers on the street, discovering unexpected connections along the way.
World famous blind virtuoso violinist Tcha Limberger will be playing gipsy folk music, and jazz guitarist Remi Harris will play ahead off jetting off to the Montreal Jazz Festival.
Sam Cole, marketing manager for the festival said: "There is a lot of stuff on that you would normally have to go a lot further afield than Shropshire to see, maybe to the Edinburgh Fringe or Brighton Fringe."
She said it came in part from Ludlow now being part of the World Fringe network, adding: "We'd like writers to come along and write reviews and post them on the Fringe Review website."
Ludlow Fringe Festival runs through to July 3.
