FROME FESTIVAL 2018

Martin Dimery’s Highlights

The South West Festival Chorus presented Brahms Requiem in the elegant surroundings of Trinity Church.

Encompassing both the sublime and the ridiculous, George Egg, DIY Chef was a highlight at the Merlin Theatre.

Badly Drawn Boy and John Cooper Clarke were amongst memorable headliners at the Cheese and Grain.

Julian Richards and other Frome Society for Local Study Talks 

FSLS enjoys a long-established role in supporting the Frome Festival with a series of events on a wide range of topics all of which have had some sort of link to Frome or the surrounding area. A wide and varied programme has been offered and has been enthusiastically welcomed and often sold out! 

Highlights have included historic lms of Old Somerset, a performance based on the diaries of Thomas Bunn, a review of the life of Anthony Powell who lived in Chantry, an update on the Frome Hoard and a chance to recollect and celebrate the WW2 evacuees who came to and often later settled in the town. 

We shared the excitement of the young boys (now grown up!) who discovered underground tunnels near Corsham which housed secret wartime facilities. And then, to celebrate J.W. Singers contribution to the life of Frome there was a talk on Statues, Slavery and Empire, which well before the toppling of the Colston statue proved to be a very thought provoking evening! 

A lasting memory is of our 2018 speaker, Julian Richards who spoke on one of the hottest days of the year armed with a spade and a wheelbarrow as part of his talk on a life digging up history. 

Margery Hyde and Liz O’Sullivan