Bury St Edmunds: Top acts booked for town festival

ORGANISERS of one of the region’s best-loved festivals have unveiled some of the highlights planned for this year’s event.

This year’s Bury St Edmunds Festival will, for the first time, feature the town’s Apex centre.

Usually running for two weeks, this year’s event will run for just 11 days.

Although the full line-up will not be released until the middle of the month, organisers last night revealed some of the highlights planned for the festival, which will run from May 19 until May 29.

Festival manager Nick Wells said he had attempted to “condense” the programme into 11 days while maintaining the “usual buzzing mix of contemporary and classical music, outdoor concerts, jazz, folk, film, comedy, walks, street theatre and much more”.

The festival’s opening weekend will include the Congolese superband Staff Benda Bilili at the Apex and two “Gigs in the Gardens”. On May 20, the Blues Brothers tribute group Jake and Elwood with their Black Rhino Band will take to the stage in the historic Abbey Gardens. On May 21, the Take That & Robbie Tribute group will perform in the grounds.

Mr Wells said other highlights include Evelyn Glennie, who will be performing “some of the most impressive and difficult pieces written for percussion” and the “ever-inventive” saxophonist Jan Garbarek and the Hilliard Ensemble, who will play music from their Officium Novum album inside St Edmundsbury Cathedral.

Last year’s festival, which was sponsored by the EADT, marked the event’s 25th anniversary

Tickets for the outdoor concerts in the Abbey Gardens will go on sale from February 14, with discounts for group bookings.

All other festival events can be booked from February 28.

Tickets can be booked at the Festival Box Office in the Apex, Charter Square, Bury, or online at www.buryfestival.co.uk, by calling 01284 758000 or by emailing boxoffice@theapex.co.uk