coast WHAT’S ON
SU CARROLL rounds up the very best activities to do and things to see close to the coastline this month
1A
1B
1 FESTIVAL OF BRITTEN
Aldeburgh Festival in Suffolk was created by Benjamin Britten and Peter Pears with their friends in 1948 at their Suffolk home, The Red House - afarmhouse in a beautiful five-acre garden. It’s still at the centre of the festival which this year includes music familiar and new, five exhibitions, five films, two operas, a centenary celebration of the composer Ligeti, concert theatre and more.
The Red House is home to the couple’s archive and has a museum and gallery space. It is here that you will find two exhibitions during the festival – one, in timely fashion, will explore Britten’s 1953 coronation opera Gloriana through programmes, photographs and correspondence.
The other will focus on how Britten and his circle made and responded to the arts in a number of less formal settings: folk song and folk art, music for amateurs, and music outside the concert hall.
The festival opens with a Britten Pears Arts commission, the world premiere of Sarah Angliss’ new opera Giant, telling the true, extraordinary story of the 18th-century “Irish giant” betrayed in the name of science. It will be performed in the Britten Studio at Snape Maltings.
A full programme can be found at brittenpearsarts.org.
The go-to destination for art lovers in Aldeburgh is the South Lookout Tower on the beach. It was somewhere that Britten would recognise – his opera Peter Grimes is set in the then thriving fishing community of Aldeburgh catching herring and sprat. The lookout was used to spot any vessels in trouble to send pilots out to them. It’s now a base for artists who create work for exhibition during short residencies.
For more information visit the wesbite aldeburghbeachlookout.com.
2 CHILL OUT
The lovely Big Retreat Festival on the Welsh coast encourages you to leave your troubles behind, get some fresh air and improve your wellbeing. There are over 300 carefully curated experiences lined up at one of the fastest-growing wellbeing festivals in the UK, set in in the beautiful Pembrokeshire countryside and part of Britain’s only coastal national park.
Founder Amber Lort-Phillips has curated a huge range of activities for this year’s event - yoga, talks, workshops, feasting, arts and wild swimming. There is woodland foraging, cookery demos, gin workshops, gong baths and meditation with something for all the family. There are also opportunities for people who are travelling alone to meet up with other solo festivalgoers. There’s plenty of great music too from headliners Scouting for Girls, Toploader and a DJ set from Huey Morgan.
