10 days to go til JAM on the Marsh returns this July with a dazzling array of events!
Following the huge success of its first festival last July, JAM on the Marsh returns with an even stronger line-up. Running from 9th-19th July this year, JAM on the Marsh is a vibrant multi-arts festival of free and ticketed events, involving many of the stunning medieval churches of the Romney Marsh.
Curated by world-famous composer, Paul Mealor, JAM on the Marsh 2015 will feature sensational concerts, a safari opera dinner, theatre, poetry recitals, beach-combing for children, stunning photography and the rare opportunity to have your dreams turned into a piece of art.
JAM on the Marsh opens with spectacular ART and THEATRE by local artists. In Search of Memory by Ruth Parkinson is an exhibition of locally inspired paintings. Following sell-out performances last year, Sabotage Theatre return with Owlers, a play about smuggling and folklore on Romney Marsh.
The weekend then starts with award-winning photo-journalist Justin Sutcliffe’s extraordinary and personal photographic journey on Romney Marsh. The PHOTOGRAPHY exhibition spans the Marsh, displayed in every carriage of the Romney Hythe & Dymchurch Railway and RSPB Reserve, and across to Brookland.
Sounds Baroque kick off the festival’s MUSIC, performing Pergolessi’s achingly beautiful Stabat Mater and Bach’s Brandenburg Concerto No. 5 in Snargate.
The following night at All Saints, Lydd, the world-class Chapel Choir of Selwyn College, Cambridge and Onyx Brass will perform Paul Patterson’s “The Fifth Continent”; a powerful work, in part sea-swirling, in part so peaceful, about the Marsh. This will be joined by our Festival Commission, “The Voices of Our Ancestors” by internationally respected Thea Musgrave. This work juxtaposes fascinating poems from across the centuries, cultures and the globe, inspired by the chance finding of the Vedic Creation Hymn (c. 1500 BCE). Paul Mealor’s chart-topping hit “Now Sleeps the Crimson Petal” also features pieces by Whitacre and Lauridsen.
Daniel Cook comes to Lydd a day after playing his recital at Westminster Abbey, in their prestigious Summer Organ Festival. A few days later he returns with the Mousai Singers to perform Duruflé’s spellbinding and deeply spiritual, “Requiem” in a concert of English and French classics; Entente Cordiale!
The Festival Chamber Orchestra of Canterbury will join the festival for the first time, performing a treat of orchestral favourites from Bach, Corelli and Albinoni, getting St Leonard’s, Hythe ready for the weekend.
Infusing MUSIC with POETRY and back by popular demand, Gawain Douglas will recite TS Eliot’s powerful and deeply moving The Waste Land, interspersed by piano interludes. Last recited in Westminster Abbey in November 2014, Jonty Driver will recite his “Requiem”, accompanied by Bach’s “Cello Suite No 1”.
Furthermore have your dreams, inner visions and memories turned into a piece of art by Kate Walters in the Marsh’s iconic church at Fairfield. Tim Parsons’ organ recital will close the festival in a typically flamboyant fashion, followed by cream tea!
Throughout JAM on the Marsh, there will be a Festival Bus service, enabling the community to attend our events. For just £1 return fare, the bus service will run from Folkestone stopping along the way to New Romney, before heading to event venues.
For info and booking for all our events please click here or call 0800 988 7984.
