“The West Midlands has a thriving arts and culture scene and we are delighted to work with Lichfield Festival to support this wonderful community,” says Rebecca Lee, marketing manager, for McArthurGlen West Midlands, principal festival sponsor. “The Festival is a key moment for the region and McArthurGlen West Midlands is very proud to be helping it come to life.”
Another headline artist is the phenomenally talented singer, song- writer, cellist and composer Ayanna Witter-Johnson who has toured with Courtney Pine to Andrea Bocelli and whose music seamlessly crosses the boundaries of classical, jazz, reggae, soul and R&B.
Also heading to Lichfield this year is the stand-up comedian Zoe Lyons, host of BBC2’s Lightning and Live at the Apollo, and QI and Mock the Week regular, who’ll play at The Hub.
In the Cathedral, Ballet Cymru are back with a new production Dream based on A Midsummer Night’s Dream while folk band and TikTok sensations, The Longest Johns, perform sea shanties and folk songs.
The festival’s inaugural Midlands Choir of the Year Competition win- ners will be chosen in a Cathedral showcase of the finest Midlands- based amateur singing groups.
A celebration centrepiece is a 40-voice choral concert which includes a new festival commission from composer Thomas Hyde and international best-selling author Alexander McCall Smith.
Alongside fabulous established and up-and-coming artists, the 40th anniversary will feature works from the first festival and bespoke 1980s themed shows such as Jessica Walker and Joseph Atkins’s 80s cabaret which revives hits from Dolly Parton to Annie Lennox (big hair and shoulder pads optional!).
Jessica Walker is one of a clutch of Associate Artists announced for 2022-2024 along with the pianist Danny Driver who appears with the Brodsky Quartet and in a solo recital; baroque violinist Rachel Podger who gives a candle-lit Cathedral concert; and BBC National
Orchestra of Wales who play a Classic FM Hall of Fame favourite – Vaughan Williams’s Fantasia on a theme of Thomas Tallis – to mark the composer’s 150th anniversary.
There’s plenty of big band and jazz sounds this year when Ronnie Scott’s artistic director James Pearson, Lizzie Ball and an all-star band play Gershwin’s Rhapsody in Blue and other American classics; and the National Youth Jazz Orchestra perform their Heritage programme Basie & Beyond. The Jonathan Gee Quartet jazzes up 1980s hits from Prince to Kate Bush in a bespoke festival show and BBC Young Jazz Musician 2018 Xhosa Cole (saxophone) performs solo.
Other highlights include the wine writer, broadcaster and raconteur Oz Clarke, back for Gin & Phonic with Armonico Consort; Lichfield’s own award-winning writer and comedian Katie Arnstein with the third of her autobiographical series Sticky Door and The Lord Chamberlain’s Men who perform Shakespeare’s As You Like It as the bard first saw it – in the open air and with an all-male cast.
Family events include an adaptation of The Wind in the Willows; the return of the Festival Fireworks at Beacon Park on the final Saturday and a free-to-participate Day of Dance on the first Sunday. Look out online too for a special children’s story-writing competition (Green Journeys), the winning entry of which will be recorded by the one and only Stephen Fry (who appeared at the 1982 Festival in his Cambridge Footlights days).
As always, there will be music, dance, drama, comedy, family fun, talks, free events – all the hallmarks that have made Lichfield Festival a cultural beacon for the last 40 years.
Lichfield Festival runs from July 7-17. General booking opens Tuesday May 3 with priority booking for Lichfield Festival Friends from Tuesday 19 April. Tickets and details at
www.lichfieldfestival.org Box 0ffice 01543 306271 (call-back service)
boxoffice@lichfieldfestival.org To become a Friend visit
www.lichfieldfestival.org/lichfield-festival-friends
Ayanna Witter-Johnson Zoe Lyons 129
The Tempest
Lizzie Ball
LIVE24-SEVEN.COM
ENTERTAINMENT √L ICHF I E LD F E S T IVAL
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