Summer Garden Series

I am aware that it is very difficult for small events to get Bristolian's attention on a weekend when the big and widely-known Bristol International Balloon Fiesta is happening. People from all over the country come to see the balloons in the sky (read here). That's probably the reason why I post this, to offer alternatives for those who might want a more relaxed Saturday afternoon.

St George's Chapel has been celebrating their new Summer Garden Series at the gardens. Every Friday (5-9pm) and Saturday (1-9pm) throughout August there will be live music, food, outdoor bars and cocktails shaken by the Rummer Hotel at the gardens of the classical music venue off Park Street. The entrance is fee and no ticket is required. Just pop up and enjoy the evening. 

Today, 9th August, there will be the Bristol Brass Quartet at 3pm and Laurence Morgan, a solo vocalist music student from University of York, at 7pm including genres such as soul, folk, pop and alternative indie. 

INTERESTING LINKS
Summer Garden Series: http://www.stgeorgesbristol.co.uk/event/summer-garden-series-iv/
Laurence Morgan: www.soundcloud.com/laurencemorgan

Summer solstice at Stonehenge

This time last year, I posted about how Basques welcome the summer and celebrate the summer solstice (read here). This year however, I will bring you a unique plan to celebrate the summer solstice, here in the UK, next 20th June 2014.

I have been in Stonehenge twice and I am still intrigued with the ancient worship area. It is one of the wonders of the world and the best-known prehistoric monument in Europe. It is located in Wiltshire, between Bath and Salisbury, and it is the remains of a ring of standing stones set within earthworks from the Neolitic and Bronze Age. 

Archaeologists believe it was built anywhere from 3000 BC to 2000 BC (exact date is unclear). Some evidences indicate that Stonehenge could have been a burial ground but a significant number of myths surround the stones. Was it a place of healing? Was it a celestial observatory? Was it a solar calendar? Who knows.

I have been in Stonehenge twice, and despite the site loses its appeal with the building and fences around, the stones bring you to ancient times and the mystery around the site is very intriguing. The stones are visible from outside the fence, so you can take a picture of them without having to pay a dime. In my opinion, the entrance is abusively expensive (£13.90) and discount for students is ridiculous (£12.50). 

When I visited, the entrance ticket (which I must admit has a very beautiful design) includes a audio guide available in several languages. I could spend as long as I wanted within the site although there isn't much to do: once you walked the path around the stones, you are done! You cannot even take a close picture of the stones! 

However, there are some changes since I visited Stonehenge for the last time. Since February 2014, the entrance is managed by timed tickets so advanced booking is recommended. Apparently, new facilities have been opened last December and it now includes a "long-awaited" Stonehenge exhibition and visitor centre, which was not there when I visited. With this exhibition, they say "visitors are given a proper introduction" to the site to improve the visitors experience.

This is the reason why I recommend the Summer Solstice in Stonehenge: the parking and entrance to the site will be free, and you will have the opportunity to experience a night in a place where druids used to conduct ceremonies as well as walk in between the ancient stones. If you go, expect some individuals and groups conducting their own forms of ceremony and celebration and be respectful and tolerant with them as well as with the site itself. 

There are some conditions: glass is not allowed as many people walk barefoot and only small amount of alcohol will be permitted for personal use. You will not be allowed to climb or stand on any of the stones, or even camping, BBQing or lighting up any kind of fire (fireworks, fires, candles, tea-lights...). Sleeping bags or duvets will not be allowed either, so I hope it's a warm night. And obviously, nobody drunk or high is allowed within the site. (check all conditions).

Summer Solstice occurs on a weekend this year, so expect the roads around Stonehenge to be very busy. Organisers advise to leave the car at home and use public transport although it could be an Odyssey to go from Bristol to Stonehenge using public transport. First, you have to go to Bath and then, take another (probably expensive) bus to somewhere close to Stonehenge. If you decide to use the car, cars will not be allowed to arrive to the car park in advance of the opening times, organisers say on the website. Stonehenge will be open from 7pm on Friday until 8am on Saturday morning.

UPDATE (22/06/2015)
This year, we have finally been to the summers solstice at Stonehenge and it was great! Everything is well organised, lots of parking space for visitors and great atmosphere. We arrived by 7pm and we only had to wait 40 minutes in the queue to get into the car park area. The car park is around 1 mile away from the stones but the walk is very nice. There are many food stalls on site. We strongly recommend bringing food, a picnic mat and some blankets as the temperature go down considerably at night. Enjoy the sunset and sunrise with drum beats as a background. Overall, a very positive experience!

INTERESTING LINKS

• Stonehenge: http://www.english-heritage.org.uk/daysout/properties/stonehenge/?lang=en

NOTE: Picture of sunset over Stonehenge taken from Wikimedia Commons

Whoever says the UK summer is not sunny is a liar

"Summer in the UK is when rain gets warmer", someone told me once. However, this sentence is not entirely accurate if we have a look back and review weather statistics of this summer. A heat wave hit the UK from the 3rd to 22nd July this year, bringing the driest, warmest and sunniest summer since 2006! 

It has been the driest since 1882, when continuous rainfall records in Bristol started. Between June and August, the rainfall was 133.0mm (when the average is 211.1mm) and we had an average temperature of 18.4*C, making it the 10th warmer summer since 1891, when continuous temperature records began in Bristol. 
Basically it did not rain until mid-August. I heard people complaining about the heat wave, "It is too hot!". But I knew that deep inside, they would love each summer to be as hot as this one. In contrast to the summer in 2012, I smile every time I think of the sunny warm days, with maximum temperature of 31.2*C last August, when Bristolians enjoyed the sun as if we were lizards, lying in the sun, because "All lizards love to lie in the sun".  

You can see daily climatic readings took in Totterdown during August in here. 

Nevertheless the Met Office say this summer was not an unusual summer: "While this summer is warmer, drier and sunnier than the long-term average, it hasn't been exceptional. It stands out because the last six summer have been wetter than average, with 2012 and 2007 both being in the top five wettest".

So, visitors: UK's summers can be dry, warm and very sunny!!

Let's get ready for Autumn now...

NOTE: Diagram took from Met Office website.

Harbour Festival: Bristol's maritime heritage

26^th - 28^th July 2013

Bristol's biggest free festival is approaching. The 42^nd edition of Bristol Harbour Festival will take place this following weekend around the waterfront. The  city celebrates its maritime heritage with a festival since 1971 with over 250,000 visitors coming to enjoy live music, street performance and other kind of live entertainments happening in Bristol. The waterfront becomes the focal point of the festival, where tall ships from many countries and hundreds of sailing boats and old-time boats will be displayed. The festival stretches two miles along the city’s waterfront from Brunel’s s.s. Great Britain to MShed, and from Queens Square to Castle Park.

FIREWORKS! // Clevedon-based Firemagic presents Harbour Festival’s main event: the firework display! The popular fireworks will be displayed in the sky around Bristol historic harbour on Saturday night at 10pm.

Picture taken from www.cliftonhotels.com

DANCE VILLAGE // The Dance Village will be located in Millenium Square and renowned performers across the country will come to perform acts from the worlds of ballet, African dances, salsa, Bollywood and street dance, for instance. The National Youth Dance Company will be there which is, according to the organisers, “the brightest dance talent across England”. In addition to that, Sole Rebel Tap will represent their show called “Solely Rhythm”.

If you head down to the Amphitheatre area, you will find the State of Happiness, creating a “happier planet that needn’t cost the Earth”, with interactive performance, music, theatre and creative activities for everybody.

S.S. GREAT BRITAIN // S.S. Great Britain, in partnership with BBC Radio, will line up music on stage and some dressing up during the weekend, between 10am and 6pm both days. There will be food stalls, family fun, the waterfront Dockyard Cafe Bar and twelve foot-tapping live bands. Confirmed actuations: Katey Brooks, Emily Barker & The Red Clay Halo, Daisy Chapman and many more.

Picture from Wikipedia

MUSIC IN QUEENS SQUARE // Queens Square will play host to reggae king DJ Derek, who has been opening the Festival for years, and his concert will happen on Friday at 9pm. Enjoy the green space perfect for picnics while listening to the best local music acts. Pigbag, Evie Woods, Lazibyrd, The Big Figure, Jama, Bashema, Lu Willott and Muff Said will perform on Saturday starting 12 noon and Burning Bandits, Freestyle Collective, The Wires, The Big Figure, Lizzie Deane, Meet your Feet, Victoria Klewin and The True Tones starting at the same time on Sunday. The Newfoundland Dogs will be performing both Saturday and Sunday.

If you are looking for something more relaxed, the Cascade Steps stage offers a mellow location on the water, with acoustic musicians and slam poetry. 

FAMILY AREA // Castle Park will become a brand new Treasure Island activity area this weekend, full of children activities and a circus stage. A giant Pirate Ship will take over Castle Park starting 12pm on Saturday and 11.50am on Sunday. There will be several characters doing some tricks, workshops and arts and crafts activities, as well as poetry and playful folk story telling accompanied with swing jazz rhythms. Cirque Bijou's circus stage in leafy Castle Park beckons, could be the perfect spot to sit back, relax and enjoy acrobatics, daring aerial, comedy, trickery and buffoonery.

Picture from www.247magazine.co.uk

MORE INFORMATION // Information included in this post is taken from official websites and Facebook posts. For more information, organisers are selling official programmes for  £2, income which subsidizes the festival. Programmes can be purchased in several stores (see list here) and you will also be able to pick it up on site from Friday at 6pm if you don’t want to make a special journey downtown to have it beforehand. The organisation apologised on Facebook after several people complaining about the impossibility of downloading the programme online, claiming that they don’t have a “download mechanism for the programme which is sophisticated enough to protect the content” so the printed version is the only programme available this year.

LINKS //
Website: http://www.bristolharbourfestival.co.uk/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/bristolharbourfestival

One hell of a thunderstorm

The sound of the rain against the windowpane woke me up last night. It has been long since it didn't rain as heavily in Bristol and the massive thunderstorm last night was quite scary. I found myself hidding below the duvet and counting between lightning and thunder, as I used to do when I was younger. 1, 2, 3, 4... 5! One mile away! Relief. One of them, however, striked very close as we heard a huge "booom" right after the thunder, followed by several alarms that went off. The lightning strike left us without water supply for the day.

The weather lately has been too sunny, hot and humid, and it's been a week since it seemed a gale would hit Bristol. According to BBC, next weeks will be messy. They don't forecast rain again until Thursday, and apparently the weekend will be free of rain too. The temperatures will stay quite the same, though, around 25ºC. 

After 5-6 weeks of summery weather, "A little fall of rain can hardly hurt us now", as said in Les Miserables.

All lizards love to lie in the sun

All lizards love to lie in the sun. As if they were lizards, Bristolians have been lying in the sun with their legs hanging down the harbourside whole week. A perfect plan: finish the working day and grab some beers to enjoy them until the sun hides behind the buildings in Clifton.

For the past few weeks, we have been able to enjoy a very summery weather, with temperatures reaching 25ºC and apparently summer came to stay at least for another week. Forecasters say weather will be much warmer than July average, with southern areas likely to be hottest. Compared to the summer we had last year, I am more than delighted to have this weather!

Yesterday evening, I became a lizard. I took "To kill a mockingbird" by Harper Lee and I was sitting down near Arnolfini reading it when a band of three people started playing. They just needed a guitar, a clarinet and a trumpet to create a soundtrack for my book. It perfectly fit! They are called The International Jazz Disaster and I really recommend you check them out. 

Good weather, good literature and good jazz: definitely an unbeatable combination!

PS: If you are interested, they sell their CD for 5 pounds. Contact them on their webpage: http://www.jazzdisaster.co.uk/