Stockport Independent Issue 180

AUGUST 2024 12 BUXTON International Festival has celebrated an unprecedented year and announced big plans for 2025. This summer’s festival – 18 days of opera, music, books and jazz – sawmore than 32,000 tickets sold across its 170 events. The festival’s five new opera productions, the jazz programme and its world- class line-up of concerts and book events boasted five-star reviews, venue sell-outs and audience praise across the board. Chief executive Michael Williams said: “There has never been a more impor- tant time to celebrate culture, to support our young rising stars and to strengthen ties with arts organisations across the UK and beyond. “BIF is leading the way in staging ground-break- ing, accessible events for everyone to enjoy as well as giving a world-class platform for musicians, creatives and authors. There is much to feel proud about following this year’s festival.” On the back of this summer’s success, BIF has unveiled its plans for 2025. The festival will be held between July 10 and 27. Highlights will include Ambroise Thomas’ Ham- let, conducted by Adrian Kelly with the Opera North Orchestra and Opera Zuid’s production of Mozart’s The Impresario. The programme will also include Opera Shorts – a new initiative featur- ing four new 20-minute opera commissions, writ- ten by emerging talent, along with 19 jazz events and 33 book talks. Adrian Kelly, Buxton’s artistic director, said: “With the festival’s popu- larity on the climb, we are very excited to announce our plans for 2025 which build on our commit- ments and ambitions for the future, with artistic quality at the heart of all we do.” The full programme and festival brochure will be issued in February 2025, with Priority Booking opening inMarch and Pub- lic Booking in April 2025. Festival looks to build on success Independent WHAT’S ON HUNDREDS of visitors flocked to a Cheshire village to enjoy a glimpse of the golden age of steam. The annual steam and vintage rally, organised by members of the South Cheshire Model Engineering Society, took place at The Peacock Railway in Willaston. Attractions included miniature-gauge train rides on the society’s quarter of a mile track. Visitors were also treated to an extensive display of classic motorcars, military vehicles and miniature steam traction engines. During the day the mayor of Nant- wich, Stuart Bostock, officially opened the group’s new Guage 1 rail track. A society spokesperson said: “Thank you everyone for supporting our Steam and Vintage Rally. We’ve been blown away by all your fantastic support.” WILMSLOW Library has been awarded a town council commu- nity grant of £900 for activities to support this year’s Summer Reading Challenge. The national reading challenge is held during the summer holidays, aimed at school-age chil- dren, to encourage good reading habits and active membership of their local library. The library aims to encourage every child in Wilmslow to partic- ipate in the challenge, and it is hosting a series of high-quality events to encourage completion. The grant will be used to fund a Lego Discovery Presentation: (L-R): Wilmslow library’s Janet Haley, town mayor Tim Higgins and Emily Morrey from the library Library gets a cash boost day, provided by Lego Education specialists, ena- bling 120 participants and their families to take part. The grant will also fund four additional STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths) and craft events, run by library staff. Town mayor Tim Hig- gins, said: “Wilmslow Town Council is delighted to support Wilmslow Library’s Summer Reading Challenge again this year. “We know that regular reading is beneficial to children, not just in their learning but also their health, wellbeing and many other ways, and are grateful to Wilmslow Library for organising these extra activities to support the Summer Reading Challenge. Good luck to all who are tak- ing part!” Full steam ahead! Words & pictures by Jonathan White