A New Spring Festival Announced

Gloucester History Festival are delighted to announce a new Festival this Spring in addition to the much loved autumn events, with a view of deepening relationships with history enthusiasts by offering a year round programme.

This decision is following the success of the 2020 festival that reached nearly 11,000 people at home around the world during the two week festival, and a further 9,500 viewers experiencing the festival by watching the recorded talks on demand.

Akin to the 2020 Festival, the spring festival will be presented online – allowing people from around the world to come together virtually and engage with stories and insights of the past. The festival will include special speakers in a selection of talks and City Voices events, offering a taste of history ahead of the main event in September.

This smaller festival will take place in April, with the programme and dates to be announced.

Gloucester History Festival 2021 Announced

We are thrilled to announce our 11th annual festival, taking place from 4th-19th September 2021.

This news follows the success of our 2020 festival that reached nearly 11,000 people at home around the globe, within the two official weeks of the festival, and a further 9,500 viewers who enjoyed the Festival’s on-demand content beyond the festival dates. 

‘After the success of last year’s festival, I am excited for what Gloucester History Festival has up its sleeve for 2021.

I am thrilled to announce the theme for 2021’s festival is Frontiers and Pioneers, which not only will share world-changing-moments in history, but also feels so relevant to the history we’re living through today. Engaging with history is a constant reminder, that the stories of the past help us to gain perspective and remind us to have hope through challenging times.

Whether we’re welcoming visitors to the history-rich Gloucester venues this autumn or virtually online, we can’t wait to share a programme that will inspire and provide something for everyone.’

– Janina Ramirez, Festival President 

This year Gloucester History Festival will run from 4th-19th September, exploring the theme of Frontiers and Pioneers. 2021 sees a multitude of significant anniversaries both close to home and further afield: the end of the USSR 30 years ago, the building of the Berlin Wall and Yuri Gagarin’s first manned space flight 60 years ago, the Battle of the Imjin River during the Korean War 70 years ago and, much further back, this May marks the 550th anniversary of Gloucester’s city gates closing against Margaret of Anjou as she approached Gloucester before the Battle of Tewkesbury in 1471. All feature frontiers or pioneers at the heart of the story.

This year also sees the anniversaries of a host of ground-breaking pioneers including Frank Whittle’s very first jet engine flight in Brockworth 80 years ago and the 150th anniversary of the birth of Gloucester-born Herbert Cecil Booth who invented the vacuum cleaner – changing our everyday lives to this day.  


Whether crossing new boundaries in the world of science and space, erecting barriers that will echo uneasily through history, manning the barricades and holding the line, or breaking boundaries to unite, work together or gain freedom, 2021’s anniversaries mark frontiers and pioneers of all kinds. As we find ourselves in a memorable yet challenging time in history, these stories also inspire us to look at the changes, hope and advancements through difficult times and the pioneers and breakthroughs which have prevailed.

With events cancelled and postponed across the world in 2020, Gloucester History Festival was one of the first across the country to develop a fully digital festival experience, reaching more people than ever before. This September, we hopes to offer both online and in-person events and will follow guidance on this nearer the time. The Festival is committed to continuing an online programme as well as real-life events where possible, aware of the positive impact that online events have in reaching people near and far. A virtual visitor from Canada said:

‘I am immensely thrilled to be able to attend the festival this year from Canada. The programming was impeccable. I am blown away by the programming!’

 

The 2020 festival was praised by many for the quality of the talks on offer. 

‘I enjoyed viewing the events online, there was a great deal of interesting material in the lectures and the discussions were friendly, stimulating and often thought provoking.’

The full programme and speakers will be announced later in the year.

The 2020 festival included household names such as Janina Ramirez, Mary Beard, Neil Gaiman and David Olusoga. 

Gloucester History Festival receives lifeline grant from Government’s £1.57bn Culture Recovery Fund

We are delighted to announce that we have been nominated to receive a £25,000 life line as part of the Culture Recovery Fund for Heritage.

This emergency funding will enable us to:

  • Recoup against financial loss from this year’s festival, which, due to the Covid-19 Pandemic, forwent all live events
  • Future proof against the on-going climate by finding new ways to develop the Festival with online content

This is a great time for Gloucester as three other heritage organisations, as well as us, received financial support from the same fund, totalling almost £300,000.

We wanted so very much to be able to offer live events this year, but at the eleventh hour that the decision was made to digitalise all events. Although this opened many doors of opportunity, and we engaged with more people online than ever before, the financial situation has been an on-going concern, as it has with many arts, cultural and heritage organisations nation wide.

With social distancing conditions remaining in place, we plan to use a proportion of the funding to futureproof ourselves against ongoing restrictions by learning from this pilot year of digital activity, using that learning to guide future festival plans.

“We are so relieved Although we were thrilled to be able to offer the Festival online this year, we lost a massive line of income from ticket sales because we were not able to hold any live events. Its been a massive concern”

Jacqui Grange, Festival Producer

The support that our audiences and subscribers have given us through individual donations has been so gratefully received, and we thank each and every person who has contributed in this way. However, we are still in the position where we rely very heavily on this support fund, if the future of the festival were not to be in jeopardy, and this much needed funding gives us the lifeline that we need to journey into 2021 slightly more confidently.

This vital funding is from the Culture Recovery Fund for Heritage and the Heritage Stimulus Fund – funded by Government and administered at arms length by Historic England and the National Lottery Heritage Fund. Both funds are part of the Government’s £1.57 billion Culture Recovery Fund which is designed to secure the future of Britain’s museums, galleries, theatres, independent cinemas, heritage sites and music venues with emergency grants and loans.

Gloucester History Festival asks the City for its memories.

Gloucester History Festival asks the City for its memories.

#everyoneshistory

Gloucester History Festival is asking the residents of Gloucester to submit some of their favourite Gloucester based memories to be used in a digital memory box as part of the Gloucester Looking Up project.

Celebrating their 10th anniversary and the 25th anniversary of Heritage Open Days, Gloucester History Festival is working with the Heritage Hub on a city-wide digital heritage project, funded by Historic England, entitled Gloucester Looking Up which is a key part of the City Voices programme of the Festival this year.

Written, spoken and recorded, typed or filmed, residents are asked to share some of their most precious memories of Gloucester, with a view of some of them being included within the Digital Memory Box project. Residents will be able to submit memories on the new Gloucester History Festival website, once it launches in August, or in the meantime, by accessing the submission form available on social media (Facebook, Twitter and Instagram), that is sent to the email subscriber list, or by emailing to be sent the link to the submission form.

“Your memory could be about people, places, events, special family moments, celebrations or landmark occasions” says Dan Lusby from Squeaky Pedal, the company commissioned to make the Memory Box. “But really, we are looking for those very special memories, those moments in time, that are not necessarily connected to something big happening else where. It is those small cherished, blink and you miss them, memories that mean the world to you, that we are looking to capture. But they have to be connected to Gloucester.”

Gloucester History Festival celebrates stories of the past that are told around the world, in a way that is relevant to people today, but it is a festival very much rooted in Gloucester. Telling the stories of people from the City, who continue to make it such a vibrant, interesting, colourful and special place to live and work is equally important.

Gloucester History Festival is supported by Gloucester City Council and Historic England.

For more information, further images and to book interviews contact Beckie Smith:

The theme of this year’s festival will be Voyagers and Visionaries to mark the 400th anniversary of the Mayflower’s voyage to America in September 1620. Telling stories of discovery, migration, identity and discovery it reveals how journeys near and far have shaped our past.

Gloucester History Festival is doing everything it can to deliver some elements of a live programme across the 2 week festival which runs from Saturday September 5 to Sunday September 20 this year, but inevitably, due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the event will be much changed with significant online and digital contributions for the first time. A new website (www.gloucester historyfestival.co.uk) will be launched soon, and people are encouraged to check it regularly as content will be added on a rolling basis.

As part of the City Voices element of the festival, Historic England has made a grant to the city to inspire a citywide heritage response to COVID-19.  Entitled ‘Gloucester Looking Up’ it will encourage communities to look up at the buildings, look up online, look up their heritage and ensure that Gloucester’s built and lived heritage is part of a shared recovery.

Press Release

Press Release

Gloucester’s thriving History Festival makes history of its own this year and announces some of its first ever programme of digital online events.

#everyoneshistory

Following the most recent Covid-19 Government advice Festival managers have made the decision to deliver not only the City Voices element of the festival online, but the renowned Blackfriars talks programme as well.

Festival Manager Jacqui Grange said: “We believe with careful planning we will achieve same level of professionalism expected of the Festival with our online content. We are putting together an extraordinary programme of events which will not only encompass the City Voices programmes, but the Blackfriars talks too, with some elements of the Heritage Open Days programme also being available online.

The impressive and digital City Voices programme includes highlights such as:

Kingsholm Looking Up by artist Ellie Shipman; an illustrated guide to the people and places of Kingsholm where people will be able to visit the area, follow a walking trail map and ‘look up’ to see vinyl illustrations in the windows across the route.

Take it to the Cleaners by artist Hanna Thomson; celebrating the unsung heroes of heritage and ensuring they are recognised for the invaluable work they do. At this online event, audiences will hear about their favourite objects or parts of the heritage sites they clean as well as their own experiences and stories

You called: we came! by Diverse-city; a project that works across the whole festival resulting in an interactive map which people can follow that raises the profile of BAME heritage across the city. This projects also includes a film about the All Nations Community Centre

Gloucester Firsts by Rider Shafique and Tarsier Films; who present two short documentaries which explore Black History through telling the stories of firsts. The first Mosque and first Black Business. The films will include interviews with key community members and will look at the importance and influence of heritage and how people connected to these venues and businesses have continued to support the BAME community today

BSL tour of Gloucester by Deaf artist Olivier Jamin and Christina Wheeler; who present a unique and engaging response to 2-3 sites across the city in BSL with subtitles for hearing audiences

Tales from the Cross by Jarek Adams; who presents an interactive audio experience designed to stimulate individuals into thinking about their city, its past, present and future and their part in its story.

We See Gloucester (Do you see us?): The city through the lens of black photographers; Rider Shafique poignantly explores identity, culture and heritage through face coverings in a series of photographs of Gloucester people taken during lockdown.

This City Voices content will be available on the Festival website (www.gloucesterhistorfestival.co.uk) for festival goers online from the launch of the Festival on Saturday 5 – Sunday 20 September. The new website is expected to launch by mid-August.

Festival Managers are still finalising details of the now online programme of Blackfriars events; details of which will be announced shortly.

The festival will begin as usual with Gloucester Day, masterminded as always by Town Crier Alan Myatt on Saturday 5 September, and the Heritage Open Days programme, celebrating its 25th anniversary this year will still continue in a socially distanced manner.

Despite the consequences of Covid-19 this 10th year of Gloucester History Festival promises to be the best and most innovative year yet. 

Gloucester History Festival celebrates stories of the past that are told around the world, in a way that is relevant to people today, but it is a festival very much rooted in Gloucester. Telling the stories of people from the City, who continue to make it such a vibrant, interesting, colourful and special place to live and work is equally important.

Gloucester History Festival is supported by Gloucester City Council and Historic England.

Notes to Editors

For more information, further images and to book interviews contact Beckie Smith:

The theme of this year’s festival will be Voyagers and Visionaries to mark the 400th anniversary of the Mayflower’s voyage to America in September 1620. Telling stories of discovery, migration, identity and discovery it reveals how journeys near and far have shaped our past.

Gloucester History Festival is doing everything it can to deliver some elements of a live programme across the 2 week festival which runs from Saturday September 5 to Sunday September 20 this year, but inevitably, due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the event will be much changed with significant online and digital contributions for the first time. A new website (www.gloucester historyfestival.co.uk) will be launched soon, and people are encouraged to check it regularly as content will be added on a rolling basis.

As part of the City Voices element of the festival, Historic England has made a grant to the city to inspire a citywide heritage response to COVID-19.  Entitled ‘Gloucester Looking Up’ it will encourage communities to look up at the buildings, look up online, look up their heritage and ensure that Gloucester’s built and lived heritage is part of a shared recovery.

 

Gloucester History Festival celebrates a double birthday year

Gloucester History Festival celebrates a double birthday year

Gloucester History Festival celebrates a double birthday year and plans to still deliver some elements of a live public programme.

This year marks a double celebration for Gloucester History Festival – the 10th year of the Festival itself and the 25th year of Heritage Open Days in the city.

Gloucester History Festival is doing everything it can to deliver some elements of a live programme across the 2 week festival which runs from Saturday September 5 to Sunday September 20 this year, but inevitably, due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the event will be much changed with significant online and digital contributions for the first time. A new website (www.gloucester historyfestival.co.uk) will be launched soon, and people are encouraged to check it regularly as content will be added on a rolling basis.

All the elements which have made the event so successful in the past will still be there this year. Starting with the traditional Gloucester Day procession followed by City Voices events and Blackfriars Talks, then the Civic Trust organised Heritage Open Days (from Friday September 11 to Monday September 14).

The theme of this year’s festival will be Voyagers and Visionaries to mark the 400th anniversary of the Mayflower’s voyage to America in September 1620. Telling stories of discovery, migration, identity and discovery it reveals how journeys near and far have shaped our past. These ideas will be touched on at the Blackfriars Talks (Saturday September 12 to Tuesday September 15).

Talks are planned to take place in front of a live audience at Blackfriars Priory, adhering to the latest Government recommendations for holding live events. The live events will be filmed, and broadcast-quality films will be available to view on the festival website the following day. 

Speakers will include leading historian and broadcaster Michael Wood who will explore the Story of China, Michael Scott, star of BBC’s Ancient Invisible Cities, and Festival President Janina Ramirez who will present an item on medieval women.

“You can imagine how important it is for the Festival to celebrate its 10th year and we’re thrilled to be able to plan a live programme, albeit carefully and within guidelines. With every challenge there comes an opportunity and whilst we’re keen to welcome as many regular festival visitors as possible.  We see this year as an opportunity to welcome new audiences to enjoy the Festival for the first time.” says Janina Ramirez.

As part of the City Voices element of the festival, Historic England has made a grant to the city to inspire a citywide heritage response to COVID-19.  Entitled ‘Gloucester Looking Up’ it will encourage communities to look up at the buildings, look up online, look up their heritage and ensure that Gloucester’s built and lived heritage is part of a shared recovery.

As usual all Heritage Open Day events will be free of charge, and although the range of activities will be curtailed this year, the organiser Paul Drinkwater said: ‘‘At present we are planning guided walks limited to five guests per walk and access to venues, talks and music events in limited numbers with social distancing.’

Other ideas being considered are:- a display of Blue Plaque photos at St Nicholas; geocaching on Alney Island to pursue national theme of ‘Hidden Nature’; developing talks on video and a self-guide booklet for Gloucester pubs and churches.

Every year the festival relies on ticket income and support from sponsors and donors, and this year a financial loss is expected. Richard Graham, festival chairman, is asking people to donate whatever they can to support the festival in its anniversary year and ensure the 2021 festival is even bigger and better.

Our new website will be launched in early August.  Tickets for events within Gloucester History Festival 2020 can then be booked at www.gloucesterhistoryfestival.co.uk. All on-line and on-demand content will also be made available free of charge from the same address.

Gloucester History Festival is supported by Gloucester City Council and Historic England.

—-Ends —–

———Notes to editors ——-

For more information, further images and to book interviews contact Beckie Smith: Beckie.smith:flyinggeese.co.uk

Janina Ramirez is a leading historian, broadcaster and author based at Oxford University. Her many series for BBC TV include An Art Lovers’ Guide, Saints and Sinners and The Genius of Leonardo da Vinci. Her books include the acclaimed The Private Lives of the Saints, Julian of Norwich and her bestselling new series of children’s novels.

Top historian and broadcaster Michael Wood is the creator of some of the best known history series and books of the last thirty years including In Search of the Dark Ages, Story of England, The Story of India and In Search of the Trojan War. His latest book The Story of China is published in September.