Lexden Festival serves up another week of artistic treats

Starting tomorrow, April 29, and continuing all week until next Saturday, May 6, the focus of the festival, as always, will be the festival art exhibition jam packed with works from local and nationally renowned artists.

Among those taking part include three making a return visit from last year; Jonathan Trim from Leigh on Sea with his atmospheric landscapes; knitwear designer Caroline Sullivan from across the Suffolk border in Martlesham; and Wivenhoe's Richard Allen with watercolours, oils and lino prints of British birds.

The exhibition will be open daily at St Leonard's Church from 10.30am to 4.30pm except Sunday, when it opens later at 1pm and May 3, when it opens at noon.

Live events are scattered throughout the week with Medieval and Renaissance musician Lizzie Gutteridge kicking things off with a concert entitled Looping through Time, where she uses live looping to create layers of sound using an amazing number of early wind and string instruments.

Based in Marks Tey, Lizzie is a member of Blondel, who performed at the festival in 2015, and has performed at The Globe, Hampton Court and the Tower of London.

Her concert takes place tomorrow at 7.30pm.

On the last night of the festival pianist and singer-songwriter, Matyas Bacso, will be performing Hungarian Rhapsody, made-up of his own compositions and works by others, particularly George Gershwin.

Hungarian born Matyas is now based in Colchester and was most recently heard performing in Tubular Bells Live! at the Mercury Theatre.

Other events will see potter Richard Baxter giving an illustrated talk on his career on Monday; James Russell's lecture on artist brothers Paul and John Nash on Wednesday; and on Friday, internationally acclaimed storyteller, Hugh Lupton, makes his fourth visit to the festival with a programme entitled Animal Tales.

Tickets for all the evening events, priced £10, are available from www.lexdenartsfestival.org.uk and Red Lion Books in Colchester High Street.