Take Five - Spirit of Summer

Spirit Of Summer By Judith Schrut

The sun has got its hat on and the clouds are right as rain! Welcome to the great British summer, bringing you traditions like strawberries and cream, village fêtes and country fairs, green parks, fragrant gardens and daily chit-chat about the weather. You’ll also find an amazing choice of music, arts, festivals and other cracking cultural treats. We invite you to enjoy those fabulous long days and late, light nights with our pick of this summer’s savouries.

1. Midsummer Night’s Steam

With many of us thinking long and hard about global warming, climate change and ways to reduce our carbon footprint, environmentally friendly holidays have become attractive options. Hiking, biking, boats, trains and the joy of slow travel are definitely in this summer, while UK ‘Staycations’ are more popular than ever.

If you enjoy slow travel, breath-taking scenery, the sight, sound and smell of steam and a bygone era, why not make the journey the destination - aboard a magnificent, old fashioned steam train? Steam Dreams is the first rail company to be completely carbon neutral. They’ve just launched two sparkling summer steam train services running from London’s Waterloo Station. The Royal Windsor Steam Express carries travellers to the historic city of Windsor by beautifully restored steam trains three times daily on Tuesdays, while the Sunset Steam Express offers fabulous evening trips from London to the scenic hills, villages and downs of rural Surrey, designated an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty.

This is the first time a regular steam service has run from Waterloo to Windsor in many years. Adventurous, hungry travellers on both services can choose to dine in elegant 1950s Pullman carriages or comfy 1960s style restaurant cars. Windsor trips offer a fabulous Champagne brunch, while sunset journeys offer a threecourse chef-prepared dinner. Alternatively, bring your own picnic on-board or take a trip down memory lane by purchasing traditional British Rail bacon rolls and freshly brewed tea.

For serious steam train fans, Steam Dreams has loads of thrilling day and multi-day rail trips throughout the year. Anyone for hopping aboard the Highlands and Islands Flying Scotsman, the Emerald Isle Craic Express or the Bluebell Railway to Oxford and Cheltenham? What about a steamy frolic to the Isle of Wight to visit Queen Victoria’s country house in her bicentenary year? (More on that to follow). Further information: www.steamdreams.co.uk

The Journey is the Destination with Steam Dreams, photo by Ben Collier

2. Family Fun

Families with school-agers will want to make the most of Britain’s notably shorter-than-US summer vacations, and we’ve got lots of ideas on how to do just that.

Summertime is festival time in the UK, with more festivals than ever turning full-on family friendly. With free entry for under 14s, a Children’s Parade, dedicated Kids Zone with hundreds of activities from dawn to dusk and a relaxed vibe, WOMAD is always a top choice for families. We’re also huge fans of Cornwall’s Port Eliot Festival, magical for families in so many ways, including the enchanting Wildlings Wood, canoeing, kayaking and wild (but safe) river swimming, a forest school, bedtime stories read by celebrated children’s authors and much more. We’ve also heard good things about the family-oriented Deer Shed Festival in North Yorkshire, the Great Wonderfest in the Isle of Wight and the Boomtown Festival in Hampshire.

The fabulous family friendly Port Eliot Festival

For the best in ferociously family friendly music, magic, circus and comedy, head to London’s Southbank for the annual Underbelly Festival. Underbelly proudly presents affordable live entertainment for all ages, with many shows priced at £10 or less, along with plenty of street food, refreshment bars and River Thames-side views.

This year’s Underbelly has stage adaptations of children’s story favourites, Shark in the Park, Elmer the Patchwork Elephant and CBeebies Twirlywoos Live! There’s a heart stopping new show from Flip FabriQue, the Canadian circus sensation renowned for world class acrobatics, thrilling theatrics and daring aerial routines.

Look out too for the popular return of Morgan and West’s Utterly Spiffing Spectacular Magic Show for Kids, Monski Mouse’s Baby Disco Dance Hall and Showstoppers Kids Show, where young audiences get to help make a musical on the spot. Strict house rules forbid adults to participate!

Elmer the Elephant and friends at the Underbelly Festival, image courtesy of Borkowski Arts & Ents

Summer Screens brings movies to unique outdoor venues around the UK including Bristol Zoo, Coventry Cathedral Ruins and University Museums Oxford. Speaking of museums, if you’re looking for something completely different for your brood this summer, why not treat them to a museum sleepover? Choose from DinoSnores at London’s Natural History Museum, AstroNight at the Science Museum, BedBugs at London Zoo or a Sleeping with Sharks Aquarium Overnight at the National Maritime Museum, Plymouth. While you’re at it, be sure to check out the dozens more museums and galleries participating in Museums at Night events in October and May each year. Further information: Underbelly Festival at the Southbank until 29 September 2019, www.underbellyfestival.com WOMAD, 25-28 July 2019, womad.co.uk Port Eliot Festival, 25-28 July 2019, www.porteliotfestival.com Summer Screens, summerscreens.co.uk Museums at Night, museumsatnight.org.uk

The Unstoppable Showstoppers Kids Show

3. Brush up your Shakespeare

Shakespeare’s Globe is one of the world’s greatest open air theatres. It’s also a hugely popular must-see for Americans in Britain, whether serious Shakespeareans or virgin ‘groundlings.

The Globe is a painstakingly faithful recreation of the original 16th century round,

Michelle Terry raises the flag as Hotspur in Henry lV, Part 1 at Shakespeare’s Globe, photo by Tristram Kenton, courtesy Globe Press Office

thatched playhouse which stood a hop, skip and a bow away from its current Thameside location and where many of the Bard’s works were performed for the first time. The Elizabethan Globe thrived until an unfortunate accident: a stage cannon misfired into the theatre’s thatched roof mid-performance. In less than one hour the entire theatre had burned to the ground. Astonishingly, there were no serious casualties, although one theatregoer’s breeches reportedly caught fire. Luckily, flames were swiftly extinguished with a swash of ale.

Today’s reconstructed Globe was founded by late American actor, activist and tireless fundraiser, Sam Wanamaker, who would have been 100 years old this year. Since opening in 1997, the Globe has been a success story beyond all expectations.

This summer’s theme is ‘Our Sceptr’d Isle’, with a focus on Shakespeare’s history plays. There are standout productions of Henry IV, Parts 1 & 2 and Henry V, with women playing all three lead roles of Falstaff, Hotspur and King Henry. You can also see a Midsummer Night’s Dream, the Merry Wives of Windsor and Ben Jonson’s comedy of London life and society, Bartholomew Fair. A dedicated touring cast will take productions of Twelfth Night, Pericles and Comedy of Errors to castles, open air theatres and other stunning venues around the UK and abroad.

In addition to plays, the Globe produces staged readings, concerts and midnight matinees. storytelling events, fascinating guided tours and a Young Actors Summer School.

Globe seats sell out fast, but hundreds of ‘groundling’ tickets are available for every performance on the day. An inflation-busting £5 guarantees you a standing spot in the stage pit, just like indigent theatregoers back in Shakespeare’s day – although their tickets cost just one penny.

Be forewarned that the Globe is verily open to the elements and whatever the weather the show will go on. But come rain or shine— and yes, we’ve witnessed hail, lightning storms, sweltering heat and set-shaking winds— we promise your visit here will be a magical experience. Further information: Shakespeare’s Globe summer season, April-October 2019, www.shakespearesglobe.com

4. Pride of the Proms

Hailed as the world’s greatest festival of classical music, the BBC Henry Wood Promenade Concerts, affectionately known as the Proms and a national treasure since Victorian times, roll into town in mid-July, filling London’s Royal Albert Hall with 90 concerts and 8 weeks of sumptuous sound, ending with the legendary Last Night of the Proms.

This year’s Proms are surely the most diverse ever, a feast of international orchestras, conductors, choirs and soloists, and a huge variety of music. Visits by the musical great and good from around the world including thrilling Chinese pianist Yuja Wang, Italian pizzica sensations Cantoniere Grecanico Salentino and Angelique Kidjo from West Africa.

You’ll find Proms celebrating earth and the environment, outer space, sci-fi and the 50th anniversary of the first man on the moon. There’s a Prom saluting the summer of 1969– think Woodstock, the Beatles’ Abbey Road album, Vietnam War protests, Moog synthesisers blasting switched on Bach and movies like Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid and Midnight Cowboy. The CBeebies Children’s Prom takes the whole family on a musical trip to the moon. There are Proms dedicated to one composer including a Bach night, Wagner night and a Beethoven night. You can also tap into dozens of free and extra events, talks, films and workshops.

North American musicians and performers are always well-represented, with this year no exception. Look out for the gorgeous Joyce DiDonato singing with the National Youth Orchestra of the USA, top violinist Joshua Bell plucking his 300-year-old Stradivarius and the Proms debut of 21-year-old piano sensation Eric Lu. The European premiere of John Luther Adams’ In the Name of the Earth celebrates the natural world in a musical spectacle with 600 singers and eight choirs. The evergreen Barry Manilow, Chrissie Hynde and charismatic mezzo-soprano Jamie Barton are sure to set the Last Night Prom on fire.

Two Proms with an American slant we’re particularly excited about are Mississippi Goddam, an homage to singer and social activist Nina Simone, and a dance and song extravaganza of Duke Ellington’s Sacred Music. The ever-popular John Wilson and his Orchestra are back with a stylish toast to Hollywood’s Golden Age.

Prom seats are affordably priced and every concert famously features hundreds of Promming tickets for £6 each. These give you the unique chance to stand in the central Arena or stand, sit or lie down in the Upstairs Gallery.

For the Last Night on 14 September, the Proms spill out from the Royal Albert Hall onto open spaces around all four countries of the UK for the atmospheric Proms in the Park. There will be music and merrymaking at Belfast’s Titanic Slipways, Glasgow Green on the Scottish banks of the Clyde, Singleton Park in Swansea, Wales, and Hyde Park in London, culminating in a cross-country link up of flag-waving, fireworks and passionate singalonging to Land of Hope and Glory, Rule Britannia, Jerusalem and the like.

The fabulous Yuja Wang, photo Ian Wang, courtesy of BBC Proms Press Office

If you’re not able to get to a Last Night event, you can still watch, wave your flags, pop your party poppers and singalong via giant public video screens around the UK, or enjoy the magic of the evening live on radio, laptop or TV in the comfort of your own home, courtesy of the BBC. Every Prom is broadcast live on BBC Radio 3 and online, with many also televised. Further information: BBC Henry Wood Promenade Concerts, 19 July-14 September 2019 Proms in the Park, 14 September 2019 bbc.co.uk/proms

Last Night of the Proms, photo Chris Christodoulou, courtesy BBC Proms Press Office

5. Awesome Anniversaries

Make a date with history this summer as 2019 Britain celebrates a bevy of birthdays and anniversaries.

Two of our most famous Royals, Queen Victoria and Prince Albert, spouses and soulmates, were born 200 years ago within months of each other, on 21 August and 24 May 1819, respectively. There will be festive birthday events and exhibitions at London’s Victoria & Albert Museum, Kensington Palace and the State Rooms at Buckingham Palace, and at Osborne House, the couple’s palatial getaway on the Isle of Wight. A number of other celebrated Victorians are also hitting their bicentenary year. These include writer Mary Ann Evans, better known by her pen name, George Eliot, philosopher John Ruskin and engineer Joseph Bazalgette, creator of London’s sewage system.

Portrait of Queen Victoria and the Queen’s costume for the Stuart Ball, Royal Collection Trust, Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II

Music lovers can look forward to a bumper crop of anniversaries in 2019.

Female classical composers were a historical rarity, but this year we blow out big birthday candles for two of the few. You’ll need 200 for German Romanticist Clara Schumann (1819-1896) and 400 for Venetian composer Barbara Strozzi (1619-1677).

It’s fifty years since Woodstock, the greatest music festival of all time, the world’s first rock opera, Tommy by the Who, and the Beatles’ last public appearance, an impromptu concert on the rooftop of Apple Records, as seen in the movie, Let it Be. 1969 also saw the release of their brilliant Abbey Road LP, with the eponymous north London pedestrian crossing gracing one of pop

Leonardo Da Vinci (c) Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II

music’s most famous album covers. Why not mark the glorious occasion by walking the crosswalk with at least three of your best friends, stopping for another of those iconic photos that drive local motorists into a frenzy?

This year is a huge one for fans of Leonardo Da Vinci, the extraordinary Italian artist, scientist, inventor, all around genius and the original ‘Renaissance Man’. His Mona Lisa is probably the most famous painting on the planet. He invented the bicycle, the airplane, the helicopter and the parachute some 500 years ahead of their time. Da Vinci also developed plans for floating snowshoes, a breathing device for underwater exploration, a life preserver, and a diving bell that could attack ships from below. His private notes and scribbling reveal his eccentric habit of writing backwards, starting at the right side of the page and moving to the left.

The world, and particularly the country of his birth, will be celebrating all things Leonardo, with festivities in Florence, Rome, Turin, Vinci (his Tuscany birthplace), Milan (where he spent his most productive years) and the French Loire (where he spent his final years). If you can’t make it to the pageantry, pay homage to the great man with a visit to Leonardo, A Life in Drawing at London’s Queen’s Gallery, Buckingham Palace. This is the UK’s largest Da Vinci exhibition in many years, showing over 200 rarely displayed, exquisite drawings from the Royal Collection. It will leave you breathless. Further information: The Victoria & Albert Museum, www.vam.ac.uk Queens Gallery, Buckingham Palace, www.rct.uk

Take Five is our quarterly feature bringing the best of British to Americans in Britain. Let us know how you’ll celebrating this great British summer- we love sharing your ideas with our readers. Get in touch with Judith at judith0777@gmail.com