Two big Audlem events coming up

Each month, the AudlemOnline team sends a 500-word article about the village to the publishers of the Whitchurch Gossip and Market Drayton Gossip magazines.

These excellent publications are widely (and freely) distributed in North Shropshire and many in Audlem see a copy, particularly of the Whitchurch magazine. Many of our readers, however, are outside their distribution area.

We thought you might like to read what we said about the village this month in the May
issues:

Two big Audlem events coming up

Audlem Music & Arts Festival

This year's Audlem Festival from 23rd – 27th May promises to be a splendid occasion with over 70 musicians and bands, local artists, textile exhibitions, ceramic displays and photography.

Nearly everything on offer is completely free for visitors and, as with other years, good weather is guaranteed! On this year's musical programme, new bands will be joined by time-honoured favourites at stages across the village.

The Audlem Festival began in 2000 as an idea by then resident Paul Moran. Paul had moved to Audlem for some peace and quiet having lived in inner-city Manchester for the last 30 years. Paul was amazed that such a small village had so many talented and in many cases, full-time professional musicians and artists.

Since 2000 the whole project has developed into an annual treat for music and art lovers across the country, and Festival attendance continues to grow.

A major element of the Festival will be an Arts exhibition that will be held in the Methodist Church Hall from the 25th to 27th of May. Unusually, Friedensreich Hundertwasser, a controversial Austrian artist, will have an influence via a connection between Hundertwasser and Audlem St James school?

Conceived by Christine Johnson, a member of the Executive Festival Team, it involves the recreation of one of Hundertwasser's works by Audlem School's Years 5 and 6 pupils. The Austrian's picture is being divided into 24 sections, each to be recreated by an individual pupil and then put back together (Christine hopes!) to recreate something like the original picture. The result is expected to be an explosion of colours and shapes which will be a highlight of the Arts Exhibition.

Audlem RNLI Festival

The following weekend sees a free weekend charity event which promises waterways fun for the family. The Audlem RNLI Festival is being held on 1st and 2nd June at the award winning Overwater Marina just north of Audlem.

On the fun side the 'around the island' raft race, with homemade rafts promises some fierce, but friendly competition and on the serious side Cheshire Fire and Rescue will be demonstrating water rescues and promoting safety.

There will be craft and boating stalls, galley cookery demonstrations as well as a narrow boaters 'question time' session.

Rodney Cottrell of the Audlem Lass Boat Service and event organiser, says: "We are so pleased to be able to bring all these people together for a fun event at such a wonderful marina and I hope it raises loads of money for the RNLI."
Nantwich vets are holding a pet show with any and all pets welcome as well as a dog agility course and bird of prey and falconry displays.

Wychcraft Swing Band will be performing on the Saturday evening and on Sunday afternoon the twenty two piece Rode Hall Brass Band will be playing.

Over the last two years, Overwater Marina and the Audlem Lass Boat Service have raised a grand total of £8,500 for the RNLI and look forward to this exciting event raising even more.

This article is from our news archive. As a result pictures or videos originally associated with it may have been removed and some of the content may no longer be accurate or relevant.