The first announcements for the Wychwood Festival have been announced and will include The Divine Comedy, Embrace, The Lightning Seeds and Seth Lakeman. 

The festival takes place at Cheltenham Racecourse from 29th - 31st May, with over 100 acts performing across four stages, plus music, dance and arts workshops, a circus school and a programme of talks, debates and comedy for all ages.

wychwoodfestival.com

This Spring will see Cheltenham welcome a brand-new hotel concept focusing on the culture and experience of the beautiful town. Cult Hotels is the brainchild of Julian Dunkerton, co-founder of fashion giant Superdry and the highly successful Cotswold’s hotel and restaurant portfolio - The Lucky Onion.
 
Inspired by the originality and diversity of each local area, Cult Hotels will be an easy, accessible bolthole for travellers who are big on exploring and big on design.
 
The George will be the very first and flagship hotel by Cult Hotels made up of five beautifully refurbished Grade II listed Regency townhouses with 46 bedrooms. The original features cleverly weaved in with modern touches. 
 
With well-considered practical elements such automatic check ins and post-box key return, a well-stocked Pantry for guests to visit at any time day and night, Cult Hotels will be tapping into the clued-up urban crowd who value design and exploration. The plan will see the brand rolling into popular cities within the UK and beyond over the next few years.

Socially conscious, the team behind the brand love to repurpose these characterful, older buildings and this will be a cornerstone of the brand as it expands its footprint with ambitious growth plans for the future. 
  
Julian Dunkerton states ‘The name Cult Hotels is a nod to my history and where it all began for me, naturally Cheltenham is home to the flagship hotel – The George. As an entrepreneur I identified a gap in the market to create a new hotel concept that is accessible, approachable & cool. Cult Hotels exists for the savvy traveller who values aesthetic and culture at a fair price. My ambition with this venture is to continue to breathe new life into old buildings and bring a game changing hotel concept to the marketplace” 
  
Room categories and rates start from: 
  
Edgy  - £105 
Urban - £115 
Cool  - £125 
Culture - £145

www.culthotels.com

The Big Feastival has today announced their line-up for 2020 which sees Sigala, Nile Rogers & Chic and Rag 'N' Bone Man headline the 3 days. 

Also confirmed to perform is Swedish pop sensation Zara Larsson who has had a string of top ten hits both as a solo artist and a featured artist including Lush Life, Never Forget You and the massive number one hit Symphony with Clean Bandit. Tom Walker will also be joining the bill: the British singer-songwriter had an incredible year last year with a debut number one album and top ten singles Just You And I and Leave a Light On. Brighton born pop singer-songwriter Maisie Peters and Rock Band Reef are also added to the bill.

Now in its ninth year, the festival has become renowned for delivering music of the highest calibre, world class chefs, award winning street food and an unrivalled programme of family entertainment. 

The Big Feastival has also revealed the acclaimed chefs that will be bringing their awe-inspiring masterclasses to the culinary stages, including Marco Pierre White and Mark Hix.

Host Alex James said: “This is now our ninth Big Feastival and I can’t wait to welcome everyone back to the farm. It is such a thrill to see how the festival develops and evolves each year and I have no doubt 2020 will be bigger and better than ever. I couldn’t be more excited at the prospect of Nile Rodgers - the king of funk no less – and CHIC basically playing a gig in my back garden, not to mention hosting culinary rock star Marco Pierre White. The lineup already has something for everyone, with plenty more to come… See you in August!”

The Big Feastival takes place on the Bank Holiday Weekend, 28th - 30th August at Alex James' Farm in Kingham.

Camping and Weekend tickets are on sale now available at www.thebigfeastival.com

Jeremy Clarkson has opened a new farm shop on his farm near Chipping Norton. 

Diddly Squat Farm Shop, located on his Diddly Squat Farm, was full of potatoes grown on the farm, horseradish, eggs, apple juice and some bottles of special edition natural spring water that was being auctioned off for charity. 

​We have no idea of the opening times or whether this was just a publicity stunt as a full film crew was covering his every move. Whatever it was, it was good fun!

It's always an exciting time with Cheltenham just around the corner.

I will start with Annie Mc at Bangor. It was great that she won again and I was so pleased with the way she jumped because it was real testing sticky ground and she jumped out of it like it was good ground. She's definitely going the right way and will be entered in the Novices' Handicap over 2 and a half miles on the Tuesday at the Marsh Novices' Chase and the Plate on the Thursday. It will probably be between the two races on the Thursday but we will be deciding nearer the time. 

The journey with Annie has been amazing, with Chris [Hughes] and everyone at Coral, We have been very lucky and you have to pinch yourself sometimes that we have stumbled on such a nice mare.

There was plenty of pressure on my ride on Native River at Newbury but I just tried to take it in my stride. It was a huge day and definitely the most important success of my career so far. Hopefully it will springboard a few more opportunities. He was deadly and jumped fantastically well. The blinkers definitely sharpened him up. I am very lucky. 

It's desperately sad to hear that he will miss the Gold Cup and the National and I'm gutted for the Tizzards, Mr and Mrs Broom, Brocade Racing, and Dickie [Johnson]. It looked like he was really coming back to form and it's just really frustrating and unfortunate for everyone.

Copperhead was very good at Ascot last week. He put decent horses to bed very quickly, jumped them into submission really and was relentless in the finish. I don't think we found the bottom of him. Whether he goes for the National Hunt Chase or RSA Chase at Cheltenham, he'll be a huge ride in either race but we'll see where the connections want to go. He's going to be very exciting and will only improve with some summer grass on him.

The Manor House at Castle Combe, Tewkesbury Park and Heythrop Park have all been included in the Top 100 Golf Resorts in the UK & Ireland published by Golf World. 

The list sees Gleneagles take top spot, with The K Club in Kildare, Ireland and three of Donald Trump's resorts making up the Top 5. 

You can find the full list HERE.

The full line-up for the Cheltenham Jazz Festival was announced this morning. 

The festival returns in May with a broad spectrum of world -class contempor ary jazz, blues, soul, R&B and pop. Set against the picturesque backdrop of Cheltenham The Festival Town from May 5-10, this year’s programme once again delivers a balance of core jazz and mainstream offerings from today’s biggest stars, heritage legends and next -generation talent, with an impressive spread of UK exclusives and special commissions in the mix.

Coinciding with the Early May Bank Holiday, which moves to Friday (8 May) to commemorate the 75th anniversary of VE Day, this year’s festival will host New Wave icons Squeeze with hits from their illustrious 45-year career, as well as rarities from their back catalogue and solo careers, beloved UK soulstress Beverley Knight, R&B funk legends KC & The Sunshine Band, Irish singer-songwriter Imelda May with the Ronnie Scott’s Big Band and multi-million-selling vocalist Emeli Sandé. Blues/folk-inspired co-operative Saving Grace unveil their brand-new project featuring singers Robert Plant and Suzi Dian, Malian pop duo Amadou & Mariam and The Blind Boys Of Alabama present ‘Bamako To Birmingham’, multi-instrumentalist, DJ and cultural pioneer Nitin Sawhney will showcase music from his seminal record Beyond Skin alongside repertoire from his 20-album career, while Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award-winning Booker T Jones returns to the Festival with material from his new album Note By Note. The Festival’s Artistic Curator Gregory Porter opens the 6-day event with a concert at the 2000-seat capacity Henry Westons Big Top and has selected various acts for the ‘Gregory’s Picks’ series: Lizz Wright, Keyon Harrold, Makaya McCraven and Gary Bartz & Maisha, announced last month.

The Parabola Arts Centre programme presents a snapshot of the global landscape of jazz today, with this year’s line-up stronger and more diverse than ever. Award-winning trumpeter Laura Jurd presents her latest boundary-pushing project Stepping Back, Jumping In featuring a 14 piece-ensemble, Portuguese rock-fuelled outfit The Rite of Trio perform their UK debut as Cheltenham’s pick from the 12 Points Festival European jazz showcase, Anglo-Swiss quintet YDivide celebrate Switzerland’s lively jazz scene and legendary jazz vocalist Norma Winstone teams up with German pianist Pablo Held. British singer Lianne Carroll pays tribute to the legendary Carole King with a concert at The Daffodil and million-selling US vocalist Stacey Kent will delve into the Great American Songbook with acclaimed saxophonist Jim Tomlinson at the Everyman Theatre. 

The Festival’s long-standing partnership with BBC Radio 2 continues with special broadcasts throughout the weekend including Squeeze live in concert and a New Orleans-themed Friday Night Is Music Night with Guy Barker’s Big Band and the BBC Concert Orchestra. 
Taste-making DJ and broadcaster Gilles Peterson takes up residence at Warehouse @ The Brewery Quarter – a new pop-up venue, where in addition to his own DJ set will showcase some of the acts he’s championing right now on the UK scene: alt singer-songwriter Rosie Lowe, punk jazzers Melt Yourself Down and the genre-bending Nubiyan Twist.
 
Also on the bill and representing the UK’s kaleidoscopic jazz scene are SE London collective Steam Down, jazz/hip-hop/soul-influenced vocalist and guitarist Oscar Jerome and 8-piece Afrobeat outfit KOKOROKO. Elsewhere, Ibibio Sound Machine, fronted by Nigerian singer Eno Williams will explore a tapestry of African and electronic soundworlds and iconic drummer Tony Allen pays homage to the late South African trumpeter Hugh Masekela. And set for Cheltenham are some of the most in-demand blues artists currently touring the world: recent Grammy-winning singer-songwriter Keb’ Mo’, US bassist and founding member of blues-rock band Trampled Under Foot Danielle Nicole and harmonica extraordinaire Errol Linton. 

Cheltenham Jazz Festival 2020 is hosted in a tented festival village in the town centre’s Montpellier Gardens featuring the Henry Westons Big Top stage, Jazz Arena, Free Stage, Yamaha Discovery Space, a programme of family activities and events and a food, drink and market area. The Festival reaches beyond the festival village into Cheltenham bringing jazz to venues throughout the day until late into the night.  These include Everyman Theatre, Cheltenham Ladies’ College Parabola Arts Centre, Hotel du Vin, The Daffodil and a new pop-up venue Warehouse @ The Brewery Quarter plus a dozen more clubs and bars and three street stages in the …around town programme supported by Cheltenham BID. 

Tickets go on sale to Members at 10am on Wednesday 26 February 2020 and on general sale from 10am on Wednesday 4 March 2020. 

www.cheltenhamfestivals.com/jazz

Foals, Loyle Carner and Supergrass have been confirmed as headliners of Wilderness Festival, Season 10.

The 4-day feast of music, the arts, fine dining and the outdoors takes place on July 30th - August 2nd 2020 at the stunning Cornbury Park.

www.wildernessfestival.com