Fifty-event festival of fun for everyone
Biggest, brightest and best yet – that’s what the organisers and performers promise for next month’s Folkestone Multi-Cultural Festival (June 11-13).
More than fifty family-fun events, mostly free, will be staged during the four-day celebration of the diversity of cultures, customs and cuisines which contribute to the life and times of Shepway and East Kent. The programme will include stage shows and street theatre performances by musicians, dancers and entertainers from Africa, Asia and Europe as well as local celebrity singers and groups.
Fourth Multi-Cultural Festival
The fourth Multi-Cultural Festival organised by Folkestone Town Centre Management, it will include exciting new features including a ‘fringe’ programme. Previous festivals have attracted thousands of visitors and residents to venues around the town centre. This year, events will also be staged in the Creative Quarter and harbour area to provide entertainment for greater numbers.
Says organiser Barbara Witham: “There’ll be something for everyone to
enjoy – lots of great entertainment as well as participation events and creative workshops for children, demonstrations of arts, crafts and cooking, and stalls selling food, delicacies, ice cream, sweets and flowers.
Music, Dance and Movement
“Music, dance and movement will be at the heart of the programme. This year, entertainers will include African drummers and dancers, a team of Chinese dancers whose programme features the famous lion dance, belly dancers, tango dancers, Cossack dancers, Greek dancers, a samba band, rock and rollers, baton and flag twirlers, hula hoopers, acrobats, popular local singers Esther Howgill and Louise Orfila plus many, many others.
“There’ll be more venues, too, including Folkestone’s only vineyard at Hawking. New is a ‘fringe’ programme in the Creative Quarter and, as the six-hour finale of the festival, at the Amphitheatre in the Lower Leas Coastal Park. All in all, we are confident that this will be the biggest, brightest and best festival yet”.
Pick up a Programme
Programmes with full details and timetables of events will be available in the first week of June, free from shops, libraries. council offices and Discover Folkestone, Hythe and Romney Marsh literature pick-up points. For latest information log on to www.folkestonefestival.org
Media information: Barbara Witham or John Barber – 01303 850522 Chris Kirkham – 01303 258594 or eurotourism@teamkirkham.co.uk
