Peterborough Festival starts this weekend 26th June 2010 and runs for three weeks. Fesival Organiser Dave King tells Paul Stainton about some of the entertainment on offer. Broadcast at 07:55 on Tuesday 22nd June 2010 in the Peterborough Breakfast Show on BBC Radio Cambridgeshire.
PAUL: Now we’re barely recovered today from the Dragon Boat Festival and our exertions. My shoulders still feel like I’ve slept with a horse three nights on the trot. But now we’re gearing up for the next big event of the city’s summer, the Peterborough Festival. Three big weekends. It starts on Saturday. Dave King is the man who’s organised it. Morning Dave.
DAVE: How are you doing?
PAUL: I’m very good. A little bit tired still.
DAVE: Are you really? You’re in for a treat this weekend then.
PAUL: Well exactly. I’m compering Peterborough’s Youth Got Talent on Sunday as well, and on Saturday Jane Smith is compering the heats of that as well. But the big news is (MUSIC: The Flatley Family Theme) Stavros Flatley. The big news is Stavros Flatley. Go on Stavros. Yeah, yeah.
DAVE: Oh yes. (LAUGHS)
PAUL: But there’s so much on. Last year was a tremendous success. You had no end of events on, so many different things, that’s the key I think here as well. But this year I think you’ve gone one better haven’t you?
DAVE: I think so yes. Absolutely. We’ve got people like Terry Jones from Monty Python, who’s doing a history talk on the third of July. Tickets are still available for that, but they’re going very very quickly. We’ve got Sarah Kennedy from Radio Two doing an audience. But we’ve got these three massive weekends. We’ve got this weekend in Central Park, which you mentioned earlier, Stavros Flatrley. We’ve also got Nicole Lawrence.
PAUL: Friend of the Show.
DAVE: Absolutely. And lots and lots of local talent as well on the stage, all the way through the weekend. And then the big classical music concert on Sunday night. So this weekend especially a very very big weekend. And we kick off with the Mayor’s Parade as well throughout the city centre on Saturday.
PAUL: And everything in Central Park’s for free essentially isn’t it?
DAVE: Absolutely. It’s all free. That’s what you’re saying today. You’re going on about the Budget and all the rest of it, all this is free.
PAUL: Keep a smile. Keep a smile. (MUSIC: Oh What a Beautiful Morning). It’s free. It’s free this weekend. You can go to Central Park, it’s all for free. There are some charges for other events though, and quite rightly too.
DAVE: Yes that’s right. We’ve tried to move it along a bit and evolve this Peterborough Festival now. And things like the talks with Terry Jones and all that, yes you’ve got to pay for that, but you would pay for that anyway wouldn’t you? And what a great thing to go and watch a legend in action. So all those sort of things. And we’ve got various orchestral concerts in the Cathedral. We’ve got the Big Heritage Weekend as well. That was a huge success last year. We’ve built on that, and we’re bringing it out into Cathedral Square, we’re putting a tank on Cathedral Square.
PAUL: Watch them flagstones. (LAUGHS)
DAVE: (LAUGHS) That’s going to be a massive weeknd as well. We’re getting involved with people like the Veterans’ Association for the Armed Forces Day, lots and lots of things to do. We’ve got Around the World in Eighty Plates this weekend as well. So if you want to come and taste eighty plates then that’s going to be at Central Park.
PAUL: Don’t mind if I do. Don’t mind if I do.
DAVE: Absolutely.
PAUL: I’ll have a little nibble, why not? You’ve got the Edwin Starr band.
DAVE: Yes, the Finale yes.
PAUL: Obviously Sunday afternoon, about four o’clock, we’ve got the Final of Peterborough’s Got Talent, which I shall be compering on the stage if nobody bombs me off with water bombs. We’ve got the Battle of the Bands, there’s so much going on. And the weather looks good as well.
DAVE: Well we booked it especially for this weekend. We thought about last weekend but we thought, no, we’ll do it this weekend.
PAUL: Are you hopeful after today’s Budget that you’ll still be around next year?
DAVE: Oh definitely. We’ve got plans already for next year.
PAUL: Good stuff. It gets underway this weekend. It’s three big weekends of stuff for Peterborough, Peterborough Festival, three big weekends, twenty sixth of June to the tenth of July. It all gets underway with the Mayor’s Parade, Keith Sharp, naughty boy that he is, from eleven thirty this Saturday, making his way to Central Park. Get yourself down there. Loads going on. It’ll cost you nowt.
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