.jpeg?width=1200&auto=webp&crop=3%3A2)
A new festival is coming to one of London’s most iconic areas. Chelsea Arts Festival is taking place from 19-21 September and will be hoping to bring back some of that Sixties cultural cool with a series of talks, debates, workshops and live performances.
And now some top new names have been added to the line-up, including Ambika Mod, June Sarpong OBE and Sir Lenny Henry.
To celebrate 30 years of the Women’s Prize for Fiction some of the UK’s most compelling performers, including Sheila Atim MBE, Dame Sheila Hancock, Sir Lenny Henry, Kate Mosse CBE and June Sarpong OBE, take to the stage at Cadogan Hall to read extraordinary writing by women for a special literary salon entitled Women’s Words: From Page to Stage, raising funds for the gender equity charity.
Also at Cadogan Hall, Chelsea Arts Festival's Comedy Gala fundraiser promises to be a Saturday evening filled with laughter and features a stellar lineup of stand-up comedians, including Sindhu Vee (Sex Education, BBC Live At The Apollo, QI, Mock The Week) and more performers to be announced soon.
Ambika Mod will appear with the London Theatre Review with Nancy Durrant, Nick Clark & Nick Curtis for a live podcast recording. Mod, who rose to fame with her captivating performances in This Is Going to Hurt and Netflix’s One Day, will discuss her forthcoming appearances in the West End in Every Brilliant Thing and Porn Play at the Royal Court, joined by David Byrne, the Royal Court’s Artistic Director.
Elsewhere, the literary line-up includes William Boyd, Ian McEwan and Elizabeth Day, who will take to the stage for a special event about her new book One of Us, at Cadogan Hall.
Day commented, “I am so delighted to be launching my new novel with a one-off event at the Chelsea Arts Festival, in London’s iconic Cadogan Hall on Sunday 21st September in collaboration with Fane. It’s a real honour to be featured alongside such a stellar cast of cultural luminaries and I think it’s the perfect way to introduce readers to the characters and plot of ONE OF US. Come and join us for an entertaining Sunday afternoon, then retire to the pub for an early evening pint and roast…perfect.”
Ian McEwan will be joined by columnist and environmental activist George Monbiot, in an event hosted by How To Academy, to discuss his forthcoming novel What We Can Know, exploring humanity's resilience in the face of climate catastrophe.
-Ray-Okudzeto.jpeg)
Meanwhile fashion icon Dame Zandra Rhodes will bring her unparalleled creative vision to the Saatchi Gallery for an in conversation event celebrating the power of fashion as a form of self-expression. The Saatchi will also see YouTube sensation Jack Edwards - ‘the internet's resident librarian’ - hosting his very own take on a literary salon.
Outside of literature there will be a special night of live music at Cadogan Hall, in aid of EarthPercent, the music industry's climate foundation. The lineup of performing artists will be announced in the coming weeks.
Hugh Seaborn, CEO of Cadogan, said, "Chelsea has long been a beacon of creativity, the haunt of artists, radicals, painters and poets - drawing iconic characters and stories from Oscar Wilde to Bram Stoker, James Bond to James McNeill Whistler, JMW Turner, The Rolling Stones and The Beatles to Vivienne Westwood and Mary Quant. We look forward to seeing the festival ignite the neighbourhood with further artistic energy, providing an inspiring and accessible programme of events for residents and visitors alike.”
Tickets will go on sale at the end of May; visit www.chelseaartsfestival.co.uk for more information.
