2008 Pembroke Festival

19th to 22nd June

Welcome to the Pembroke Festival 2008

Our Main sponsors

Chevron Pembroke Refinery & Milford Haven Port Authority.

This sixth annual festival will provide a backdrop of entertainment for the flotillas of heritage boats visiting Castle Pond during Sea Fair Milford Haven 2008. Most importantly, however, the events will showcase local talent and be a reason for the community to come together to celebrate Pembroke’s unique sense of place.

Following comments and suggestions made at a well attended open meeting last November, the new Festival Group agreed to change the dates of the Festival so that local schools could be involved, and the weather and the long light evenings would bring people outside. We also wanted to provide a better structure and theme for the events and to encourage and enable more community involvement.

We hope that we have addressed these issues with a programme of events over four days that will provide something for all ages, tastes and interests. There will be a schools programme with two weeks of workshops leading up the Festival. The main events, based on our historic South Quay, will go on until 11pm and, appropriately, the theme is maritime.

The Festival will begin, promptly, at 5.30pm on Thursday 19th June when maroons will go up to start a spectacular procession led by a huge sculpture of Poseidon made, as ever, by Sand Palace Arts. He will be followed by local school children carrying sea monsters and fish and accompanied by local musicians.

Over the following three days you will be able to enjoy music in all forms, dance, drama, talks, pavement art, food and drink, model boats, walks, bike rides, competitions, quizzes, photos, exhibitions, circus skills and, of course, boats, boats and more boats! Most of the events are free to make them accessible to everyone.

We want the town’s shops to dress their windows for a Best Dressed Shop competition on the theme, and anyone and everyone is invited to dress up as pirates - there will be prizes for the most outrageous costumes. We will bedeck the town with bunting and our distinctive lamp post banners.

The Festival will end late on the evening of Sunday 22nd June with music from Wonderbrass – the boldest funkiest band in Wales, and a firework spectacular from the Castle ramparts.

So make a date to join us from 19th to 22nd June – let’s celebrate!

The Pembroke Festival Group

www.pembrokefestival.org.uk

To book tickets please contact:
The Pembroke Bookshop, 73 Main Street, Pembroke. Tel: 01646 685144

For a programme brochure please contact:

The Pembroke Festival Office

Pembroke 21C Community Association, Foundry House, Orange Way, Pembroke, SA71 4DR, Tel: 01646 680090

IMAGES OF 2007:

5th Annual Pembroke Festival – 31st August to 3rd September 2007

To view the 2007 Festival programme click here

A spectacular Butterfly Parade accompanied by the funky jazz band Wonderbrass was the high spot of a two-day Commotion on the Commons at the fifth Pembroke Festival last weekend.

Hundreds of people gathered on the Commons for two days of live music from local bands including the ever popular Mojo Morgan’s Hoochie Coochie Band and the new talent of The Devils Answer with their painted faces and crazy showmanship.

The Butterfly Parade was organised by local artists group Sand Palace Arts with funding from Awards for All Wales and Environment Wales. Throughout the summer children attended workshops to make butterflies and flowers to carry in the parade while the artists themselves made the fabulous replica butterflies and moths that were carried high across the Commons.

If you want to know more about this project click here

Following the parade local children, who had worked throughout the preceding week with the Anita Adams Academy for the Arts, staged a fantastical musical based on the Dr Seuss classic The Lorax. A tree will be planted on the commons by the children in November so that the strong environmental message in the play will be remembered for years to come.

On Saturday evening London based Honey Kalaria’s Diva Dancers led a Bollywood Dance workshop followed by a breathtaking performance in the Town Hall. The Evening of International Dance also included the Hynes School of Irish Dancing with, he of the flying feet, Sam Davies, commercial jazz dance from The Unison Dancers with a musical interlude played by Azin Marzabadi from Iran.

On Friday evening the Town Hall audience chuckled to the comic energy of The Kill for a Seat Comedy Club with well known Silky and Jason Cook.

Beginning on the previous Tuesday with a stunning concert of high quality chamber music from the Mezin Quartet at the Tabernacle, and an amusing and thought provoking talk by member of the Welsh Academi Pearl McCabe in Foundry House on the Wednesday, the Pembroke Festival proved to have “something for everyone”.

From Discovering Pembroke’s Wildside in Holyland Wood led by the National Park Authority, a Steps 2 Health walk around the town and the Parade of Sail on the South Quay the events also made good use of Pembroke’s wonderful natural environment.

The Festival Committee were also delighted to include the visiting Marching Band from twin town Bergen and the 4th International Welsh Celtic Fiddle Competition held at the Stackpole Centre in their programme.

Chair of the Festival Committee, Elvira Adams, said “We have had another wonderful and enjoyable Festival at venues throughout the Town. There was a real party atmosphere on the Commons and we are grateful to our major sponsors, Chevron and Pembroke Town Council for their continued support for this annual celebration of Pembroke’s thriving cultural life. The Committee have worked very hard but we are looking forward to next year already!”

Elizabeth Gossage

Development Officer

Photography by Gwen Griffiths

The Pembroke Festival Group

The Pembroke festival group was established in 2002.The committee is made up of volunteers and has organised an annual festival of music, art, drama and community activities in September each year. 2007 will be the fifth annual festival.

Pembroke Festival group is an un-constituted group operating as a sub-group of Pembroke 21C Community Association.

The principal objectives for the festival are:

To showcase local talent and encourage new talent from all age ranges andabilities, without discrimination

To encourage community involvement in developing and managing events

To provide good quality events and activities for both local people and visitors to Pembroke that will raise the profile of the town.

To provide events and activities to cater for as wide a range of interests and ages as possible

To benefit the local economy by providing events to extend the tourist season

Committee:

Gareth Jones - Chair

Elizabeth Gossage - Funding & Administration

Members:

Nikki Anderson