His one-man show Colecanth was a great hit at last year’s festival; now we’re pleased to announce actor Ben Moor as a last-minute addition to our 2010 line-up. A star of The I.T Crowd and Knowing You…with Alan Partridge, Ben will be running a drama class in the Idler’s Academy*.

An actor and writer, Ben has starred in several films including Dead Man Running, Disney’s Casanova and Tooth. His television credits include The I.T Crowd, Knowing Me, Knowing You…with Alan Partridge, Time Gentlemen Please and Fist of Fun. An Edinburgh Festival veteran, Ben has starred in an eclectic and entertaining mix of one-man shows including It Takes Forever If You Go By Inertia and A Supercollider For The Family.

Drama with Mr Moor: Idler’s Academy, 5pm Friday

* Please note that Ben’s class replaces Jez Butterworth’s class (sadly Jez has had to cancel due to family illness).

OTHER PROGRAMME CHANGES

Andrew Simms* of the New Economics Foundation, will be giving an Economics lesson – taking in Tesco, usury and the and the 21-hour week – on Sunday at 2pm.

Andrew is policy director at the New Economics Foundation, the award winning ‘think-and-do’ tank, and author of Ecological Debt: Global Warming and the Wealth of Nations (2009). Described by New Scientist magazine as “a master at joined-up progressive thinking”, he is on the boards of Greenpeace UK, 10:10 and The Energy and Resources Institute Europe. His new book with David Boyle, Eminent Corporations: the Rise and Fall of the Great British Corporation is due out in September.

* Please note that Andrew’s class replaces John Mitchinson’s, who has had to cancel due to unforeseen circumstances.

Brought to us by Jeff Barrett, Robin Turner, and Andrew Walsh, Caught By The River is hosting the same special area by the estuary… But this year they’re also creating their own unique bird hide chill out area with Matt Sewell, The Bird Effect programme curated by filmmaker Ceri Levy, evening bonfires, Rough Trade record area and more surprises to be announced shortly – as well as Chris Watson’s incredible Nature Disco, a festival highlight for many last year.

“Caught By The River was born on a bankside a little over two years back during an idle day’s casting,” explains Robin. “The idea – a website that would document lazy days out – became a reality a few months afterwards. Without a great deal of nurturing, it soon grew into a place that people could eulogize about the things that made the working week bearable – books, records, art, nature, angling, drinking, even cake baking. The approach was exactly like putting together a fanzine – an unshackled, uncynical torrent of enthusiasm. Here was our modern take on something hardwired in as part of punk rock culture, only this time the patron saints were Roger Deakin, Chris Yates and Chris Watson rather than Johnny & Joe; the sound of razored guitar strings replaced by bird song and the gentle plonk as the float hits the water.”

Their recent book, Caught By The River: a collection of words on water (hailed as “an exceptional new take on nature writing… a rock n’ roll nature book even”) is an evocative anthology of the best new nature writing, presented in a collection of essays on some of our favourite rivers, covering the entire length of the country. Contributors include Gavin Pretor-Pinney, Roger Deakin, Jon Savage, Irvine Welsh, Jarvis Cocker, Bill Drummond, Edywn Collins and Chris Yates to name a few.

www.caughtbytheriver.net

Reviews of Caught By The River, a collection of words on water:

“A tranquil collection…and an immediate classic. (Book Of The Week)”
The Independent

“A brilliant collection of essays by a hip band of nature lovers.”
The Mirror

CAUGHT BY THE RIVER 2010 LINE-UP:

Friday from 17.00:
The Heavenly Jukebox plays reggae, soul and rock ‘n’ roll: HVN JBX DJ’s plus guests including Pete Reilly (Soul Jazz), Pete Fowler, Stephen Parker

Saturday

11.00 Stephen Parker (Spoonful Sound System DJ)

12.00 Treecreeper

12.30 Stephen Parker (Spoonful Sound System DJ)

13.00 Kathryn Williams

14.00 Jude Rogers: ‘Lines Made by Walking’. Guardian and The Word writer Jude Rogers talks walks. As featured in her weekly column for Caught by the River.

15.00 – 18.00 The Bird Effect. Hosted by Ceri Levy.

18.00 DJ Danny Wilson (as in Danny from Danny and The Champions of The World)

19.00 Hanna Lou & Trevor Moss

20.00 The Tailors

21.00 Danny and The Champions of the World

22.00 DJs

23.30 Fionn Regan

Followed by DJs

Sunday

11.00 Stephen Parker (Spoonful Sound System DJ)

12.15 A Caught by the River Nature Book Reader – featuring Chris Watson, Laura Beatty plus others

13.30 Chris Watson’s Nature Disco (the welcome return of last years festival highlight. Britain’s premier wildlife sound recordist digs deep into his library for a river themed 90 minutes. Sounds from Port Eliot to The Antarctic.)

15.15 Ralfe Band. Performing their soundtrack to the film Bunny & The Bull

16.15 The Leisure Society

17.30 Close

Paying homage to the traditional British summer flower show but infusing it with Michael’s own unique style and magic, the Port Eliot Festival Flower Show will feature demonstrations, displays, music, art and fashion – all on a horticultural, floral theme – with everything from flower arranging classes to floral hat trimming workshops with Stephen Jones; Todd Longstaffe-Gowan on ephemeral indoor gardening in Regency London to expert insight, entertainment and inspiration from ‘The Tulip Lady’ Anna Pavord, Eden Project founder and visionary Tim Smit and artist and designer Kitty Arden – not to mention exceptional tea, cakes and exhibitions in the Orangery tearoom.

Working across the worlds of film and fashion, Michael Howells has realised some of the most spectacular and ambitious sets of recent times – designing numerous sets for John Galliano, Alexander McQueen, Mario Testino and Nick Knight, while his film credits include Bright Young Things, Shackleton, About Time Too and Miss Julie with Mike Figgis. He has also worked with the Royal Court, the Royal Ballet and the Rambert Ballet, as well as dusting Port Eliot’s stages, tents – and even train station – with his creative genius in recent years.

More details will be announced soon.

ProjectBase, Cornwall’s contemporary art commissioning agency, in collaboration with Port Eliot Festival has invited artist Dré Wapenaar to show ‘tentvillage-revisited’ at this year’s festival.

Clustered together like a colony of woodland mushrooms, the rounded shapes and light and airy structures of ‘tentvillage-revisited’ are intended to encourage communal conversations and interactions as well as a place to chill out with fellow festival-goers. Igloo-like, canvas tents in warm earth tones are arranged on multi-level platforms. They form both an autonomous sculpture and a functioning campsite containing elements of open and enclosed space.

Perfect for the laid back feel of Port Eliot, ‘tentvillage-revisited’ is open for talks, performances and quiet, individual reflection. With his hand-built designs for pavilions and tents, Dré is interested in the social architecture of communal space. Working at the crossroads of visual art, design, and architecture, his environments are designed to shape encounters – whether between individuals, small or large groups.

www.projectbase.org.uk
www.drewapenaar.nl

Deborah Curtis and Gavin Turk will once again open the gates to the magical House of Fairy Tales, set deep in the woodland rhododendron garden. Amongst the expanded literary line up for the House of Fairy Tales this year is Angie Sage, author of the bestselling Septimus Heap children’s books and storyteller Rachel Rose Reid.

The House of Fairy Tales’ Caravan of Fairy Tales has been a huge hit at events across the country – from the Brighton Fringe to the Big Chill to London’s Zoo Art Fair – but we’re proud to say it was born here at the Port Eliot Festival…

Gavin had performed at the Port Eliot Festival for three years in a row (including his ‘Waiting for Gavo’ puppet show) before, in 2006, he and Deborah talked to Jago Eliot about doing a child-friendly, creative tent together at the festival. Tragically Jago Eliot died at Easter that year, but the tent went ahead as a tribute to him. The notion of The House of Fairy Tales was dreamed up in response to the childlike, playful, magical nature of Jago’s charismatic personality. This was a very positive experience and the following year Gavin and Deborah did the children’s area of the festival and The House of Fairy Tales was born.

www.houseoffairytales.org

“Tucked away behind the hedges, in the Rhododendron Gardens was the House of Fairy Tales… a delight for children of all ages. A festival within a festival, it had several spaces; The Enchanted Forest, a House of Mirrors, an Alice in Wonderland tent and the Living Books Project…”
Londonart.co.uk

House of Fairytales links:

• 2007 write-up on Londonart.co.uk
• Guardian Culture-Vulture blog

Links:

• Pete Fowler & Jon Tye with their ocean trippin’ yacht rock blog

Pete works with Soul Jazz Sound System, a DJ collective associated with the Soul Jazz record label and the Sounds Of The Universe record shop in London. The group grew out of the 100% Dynamite club nights that started in Islington, North London in the 1990’s.

Soul Jazz Sound System is part of world-renowned Soul Jazz Records which over 20 years has evolved into a major independent record empire encompassing the record label, 100% Dynamite clubs, radio shows and book publishing.

The project will run in conjunction with The Living Wall, which, inspired by the Situationists’ psycho-geographical adventures, will grow with content over the weekend as children produce their fanzine souvenirs. Launched with great success at this year’s Glastonbury Festival, it will be overseen by Dark Times editor, Paul Sakoilsky, with his illustrator son Joe Sakoilsky, with assistance from Ella Hammond, editor of her school magazine and graduate of the Guardian Young Journalists Prize, illustrator and HoFT Live Arts Curator Josh Knowles, magazine editor Kate Jago, art director Byron Broadbent, artist and set dresser Anne Charlotte Morgenstein, and photographer and journalist Rick Morris Pushinsky.

Readings in Grandmother’s Bed will include:

• Poet Luke Wright reading from a specially commissioned fairy tale poem.
• The Idler’s Tom Hodgkinson reading Fairie Queene.
• Jim Bob reading The Very Friendly Giant.
• The Idler’s Matthew De Abaitua and his daughter Alice reading from a specially commissioned, jointly written fairy tale.
• Angie Sage reading from Moonfleet.
• Author Mark Cairns reading from his jazz age mystery novel The Glass Trumpet, alongside a selection of vintage childhood tales.
• Jessica Albarn reading from her enchanting tale The Boy In The Oak.
• Author Phil Bowen collaborating with children to read from his new story, Cuckoo Rock, in addition to readings from his Top 20 favourite children’s poets.

There will also be a chance for children to write and read anything they create during one of the Grandmother’s Bed storytelling workshops.