Isle of Ely Arts Festival 2017 : Final Weekend

As we head into the final weekend of the Isle of Ely Arts Festival there’s still a chance to catch some great cultural and musical events taking place throughout the district.
Enjoy an eclectic mix of musical styles including solo acoustic acts and rock bands at the special annual Festival Gig night at Centre-E, Barton Road, Ely on Friday 14 July. The line-up for the night will feature: Napoleon’s Legitamete Lemons, Alfie & Chris Williams, For the Hornets, Roza Manzur, Powderhead and Josh Aitken. Organised by the Babylon ARTS crew, doors open at 7.30pm, tickets £3 available online from www.babylonarts.org.uk or call the festival box office on 01353 616991.

For the final, glorious concert in the 2017 Festival on Saturday 15 July, Ely Choral Society, Ely Consort and Ely Sinfonia join forces to perform a concert that truly evokes the magic and mystery of the Fens and Ely Cathedral. With a musical programme that includes Vaughan Williams’s ‘In the Fen Country’ a magical portrayal of the bleak landscape and wide open spaces of the East Anglian Fens, to one of the best-known works in the classical music repertoire Beethoven’s ‘Symphony no 9 in D minor’. Rounding off the concert is the world première of Andrew Parnell’s ‘Fenland Images’. Reflecting this year’s Isle of Ely Festival theme of “The Fens” and based on poems by local writers. It has been composed for the Isle of Ely Arts Festival thanks to a grant from the Arts Council England.
Soloists are Peyee Chen (Soprano) Freya Jacklin (Mezzo Soprano), Michael Solomon Williams (Tenor) and Laurence Williams (Bass-Baritone). Conductors Steve Bingham and Andrew Parnell. Tickets cost £25/20/£15 (reserved), £8 (unreserved) and £5 for under 18s, available from Ely Cathedral Box Office Tel 01353 660349 and online  https://tickets.elycathedral.org/ The winning entries from the 2018 Festival Calendar Competition will be on display at the Cathedral during the concert.
Visit Cambridge Open Studios artists this weekend from 11am – 6pm on Saturday and Sunday as they open their creative spaces to the public With 50 studios open in East Cambridgeshire alone, you’ll be spoilt for choice. See the full list www.camopenstudios.co.uk There’s more great art to see at the Babylon Gallery in Ely with their David Hockney Exhibition which continues until Sunday 23 June.
The festival continues to Saturday 15 July, for full details of events see the website www.isleofelyartsfestival.org.uk