Lake District festival to celebrate 40th anniversary
The Lake District Music Summer Festival is set to celebrate its 40th anniversary.
The festival, taking place in the Lake District's UNESCO World Heritage Site from August 1 to August 10, will feature uplifting performances in various venues, including Holker Hall, Cartmel Priory, Brantwood, and Grizedale Forest.
Lake District Music is one of the UK's flagship annual summer music festivals founded in 1985 by Renna Kellaway MBE.
The festival was founded in 1985 (Image: Lake District Music Summer Festival) They give local audiences and tourists to Cumbria a rare chance to experience exceptional concerts by international artists.
They encourage artists to try new things & premiere cross-artform work to appeal to new audiences, presenting classical music in accessible ways alongside jazz, dance, poetry, art & literature.
A core part of their DNA, they also support exceptional young professionals, giving them showcase concerts and masterclasses in both the summer festival, and their new monthly spring concert series.
Steven Osborne OBE, the new festival president (Image: The Lake District Music Summer Festival) The festival will kick off with a performance by local saxophone sensation Jess Gillam and her ensemble, promising an eclectic mix of classical, jazz, and pop.
Other notable performances include Paul Lewis, who will perform all of Beethoven's five piano concertos, and the Baroque super-group Red Priest, who will perform at Cartmel Priory.
The festival will also pay tribute to Renna Kellaway MBE, the late visionary founder of the festival, celebrating her life and achievements.
Renna Kellaway MBE (Image: Lake District Music Summer Festival) Steven Osborne OBE, the new festival president and Kellaway's protégé, will honour her lasting legacy.
Emerging resident artists will have the opportunity to launch their careers alongside some of the world's finest musicians.
Beethoven's Symphony No. 9 will conclude the festival, performed by the Northern Chamber Orchestra, international soloists, and a chorus of 100 local singers from across Cumbria.
The festival promises a vibrant mix of performances, ensuring something for everyone.
The stunning landscape of the Lake District will enhance every performance, adding to the festival's charm.
Hashtags

Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles


San Francisco Chronicle
an hour ago
- San Francisco Chronicle
Dolce & Gabbana embrace wrinkled romance for spring-summer 2026
MILAN (AP) — Dolce & Gabbana beckoned the warm weather with crumpled, take-me-anywhere comfort in their menswear collection for spring-summer 2026, previewed during Milan Fashion Week on Saturday. The show opened and closed with a relaxed pajama silhouette — deliberately rumpled and effortless — in a clash of stripes, with both shorts and long trousers. The Beethoven soundtrack belied designers Domenico Dolce and Stefano Gabbana's more deliberate intent, underscoring the designers' structured approach to soft tailoring. A broad shoulder double-breasted suit jacket and tie worn with pink pinstriped PJ pants encapsulated the classic summer dilemma: work vs. pleasure. Raw knitwear, or furry overcoats, added texture. Boxers peeked out of waistbands, and big shirt cuffs out of jacket sleeves, challenging formal and casual codes. Nothing was cleaner on the runway than a crisp striped pajama top in sky-blue and white stripes tucked into white leather Bermuda shorts — good for work and for play. The designers' finale featured pajama suits, shorts and pants, with beaded floral patterned embroidery for an evening seaside shimmer, worn with fuzzy sliders. Twin cameo brooches gave an antique accent. The crowd outside got to share in the fun when the finale models took the looks onto the streets, taking a full lap outside the designers' Metropol theater. Front-row guests included actors Zane Phillips, Theo James, Lucien Laviscount and Michele Morrone.

8 hours ago
Cyprus' lyrical duelists spit fierce rhymes as they battle it out to the licks of a fiddle
LARNACA, Cyprus -- Lyrical duelists in Cyprus spit rhymes in head-to-head contests, keeping alive a tradition known as 'tsiattista' that emerged centuries before the likes of Kendrick Lamar and Drake. Konstantinos Christou Grilias and Adamos Peratikos are among a new group of poets in this Mediterranean country who battle it out live on stage to the rhythms of the lute and fiddle. The battles are fierce, but you won't find any Kendrick-Drake style beef. Tsiattista made UNESCO's list of Intangible Cultural Heritage in 2011. The similarities with American hip-hop diss songs and battle rap are many: two duelists using their wits and turns of phrase to boast how superior they are, giving opponents a schooling in an onslaught of lyrical beatdowns. It's complete with assertive gestures and the hands-behind-the-back patience of the poet waiting to pounce. 'Even if you'd been a paramedic, I'd send you to hospital with a heart attack,' Peratikos told one adversary — a line with more snap in the Cypriot Greek dialect, whose syntax is akin to ancient Greek. Grilias dissed his opponent as a lightweight and a laughingstock. The audience of hundreds along a seaside promenade murmured in approval. Tsiattista battles which have been around since at least the end of the 19th century, are undergoing a bit of a revival, thanks to performers like Grilias and Peratikos. 'We urge other kids who like it to come along to safeguard this institution,' said Peratikos, 41. 'The goal isn't about awards, the goal is to keep tradition alive.' The 44-year-old Grilias said he's never really delved into the world of Kendrick Lamar or Jay-Z. 'Honestly, I've never listened to rappers. They told me that they battle in their own language, in their own way,' Grilias said as he prepared for a tsiattista duel at the peak of a festival for the Orthodox Christian Pentecost. 'Rappers don't know where Cyprus is," he added. The new group of performers, known as tsiattistaes, started to replace the older generation about 15 years ago at the premier competition in Larnaca during the annual Pentecost festival known as Kataklysmos, said ethnomusicologist Nicoletta Demetriou, who is director of the island nation's Music Archive. The new generation includes women, though few participate because of lingering social exclusion, Demetriou said. The current tsiattista format of a two-verse rhyme with a total of 15 syllables was developed in the late 18th to early 19th century, evolving from the introduction of the rhyming verse to the Greek-speaking world in the 15th and 16th centuries, Demetriou said. It draws on a tradition of poets matching wits from the times of Pericles in ancient Greece. The structure and musical accompaniment are simple, so that the rhymes are clear and understandable for both the audience and the adversary. Contests can address a range of themes, but the underlying premise is to determine who's the best at the diss. 'It's usually a fight, meaning 'I'd clobber you, kill you, bury you,' Grilias said. 'But I believe the public likes more a bit of humor, too.' For contestants, it's about who shows up ready, can stay cool and make the fewest mistakes in front of a crowd. 'Truth is, you're stressed, you're under pressure," Grilias said, and 'the person who can best handle this has the advantage.' One useful strategy is guessing how to get into your opponent's way of thinking, predicting possible responses to your lines, Peratikos said. He dismissed AI technology as incapable of coming up with effective rhymes in the Cypriot Greek dialect. 'There are words that we've heard but we don't even know, so there's no way artificial intelligence does,' Peratikos said. At the end of a long night of battling, Grilias and Peratikos finished fourth and fifth, respectively. A judging panel composed of men and women determined the winners. The two contestants took their places in stride. 'We're all friends, that's what's important,' Grilias said.
Yahoo
8 hours ago
- Yahoo
Cyprus' lyrical duelists spit fierce rhymes as they battle it out to the licks of a fiddle
LARNACA, Cyprus (AP) — Lyrical duelists in Cyprus spit rhymes in head-to-head contests, keeping alive a tradition known as 'tsiattista' that emerged centuries before the likes of Kendrick Lamar and Drake. Konstantinos Christou Grilias and Adamos Peratikos are among a new group of poets in this Mediterranean country who battle it out live on stage to the rhythms of the lute and fiddle. The battles are fierce, but you won't find any Kendrick-Drake style beef. Tsiattista made UNESCO's list of Intangible Cultural Heritage in 2011. The similarities with American hip-hop diss songs and battle rap are many: two duelists using their wits and turns of phrase to boast how superior they are, giving opponents a schooling in an onslaught of lyrical beatdowns. It's complete with assertive gestures and the hands-behind-the-back patience of the poet waiting to pounce. 'Even if you'd been a paramedic, I'd send you to hospital with a heart attack,' Peratikos told one adversary — a line with more snap in the Cypriot Greek dialect, whose syntax is akin to ancient Greek. Grilias dissed his opponent as a lightweight and a laughingstock. The audience of hundreds along a seaside promenade murmured in approval. Tsiattista battles which have been around since at least the end of the 19th century, are undergoing a bit of a revival, thanks to performers like Grilias and Peratikos. 'We urge other kids who like it to come along to safeguard this institution,' said Peratikos, 41. 'The goal isn't about awards, the goal is to keep tradition alive.' The 44-year-old Grilias said he's never really delved into the world of Kendrick Lamar or Jay-Z. 'Honestly, I've never listened to rappers. They told me that they battle in their own language, in their own way,' Grilias said as he prepared for a tsiattista duel at the peak of a festival for the Orthodox Christian Pentecost. 'Rappers don't know where Cyprus is," he added. The new group of performers, known as tsiattistaes, started to replace the older generation about 15 years ago at the premier competition in Larnaca during the annual Pentecost festival known as Kataklysmos, said ethnomusicologist Nicoletta Demetriou, who is director of the island nation's Music Archive. The new generation includes women, though few participate because of lingering social exclusion, Demetriou said. The current tsiattista format of a two-verse rhyme with a total of 15 syllables was developed in the late 18th to early 19th century, evolving from the introduction of the rhyming verse to the Greek-speaking world in the 15th and 16th centuries, Demetriou said. It draws on a tradition of poets matching wits from the times of Pericles in ancient Greece. The structure and musical accompaniment are simple, so that the rhymes are clear and understandable for both the audience and the adversary. Contests can address a range of themes, but the underlying premise is to determine who's the best at the diss. 'It's usually a fight, meaning 'I'd clobber you, kill you, bury you,' Grilias said. 'But I believe the public likes more a bit of humor, too.' For contestants, it's about who shows up ready, can stay cool and make the fewest mistakes in front of a crowd. 'Truth is, you're stressed, you're under pressure," Grilias said, and 'the person who can best handle this has the advantage.' One useful strategy is guessing how to get into your opponent's way of thinking, predicting possible responses to your lines, Peratikos said. He dismissed AI technology as incapable of coming up with effective rhymes in the Cypriot Greek dialect. 'There are words that we've heard but we don't even know, so there's no way artificial intelligence does,' Peratikos said. At the end of a long night of battling, Grilias and Peratikos finished fourth and fifth, respectively. A judging panel composed of men and women determined the winners. The two contestants took their places in stride. 'We're all friends, that's what's important,' Grilias said. Menelaos Hadjicostis, The Associated Press