Main Image: As You Like it, Shakespeare’s comedy of love and disguise will be performed outdoors at the Old Deanery on Sunday July 7; All pictures Ripon Theatre Festival
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George Egg’s culinary comedy act literally gave a tantalising taste of what’s to come at the 2024 Ripon Theatre Festival.
Before the performer served up the main course at Ripon Arts Hub, director Katie Scott and her colleagues revealed the full, mouth-watering festival menu to a packed audience at Thursday night’s launch.
Mr Egg used equipment ranging from a steam device for wallpaper stripping to a George Foreman grill disguised as a laptop, for an unconventional means of creating cuisine that was later consumed by some attendees.
George Egg got the 2024 festival off to a frying start
The full festival menu
What is set to follow the festival starter had many members of the audience licking their lips as they looked in the 28-page guide and listened to Ms Scott and her team of volunteers talk through the coming events.
The growing festival now in its third year and with the Stray Ferret as its media sponsor, stretches to six nights and five days packed with professional touring shows alongside colourful community performances.
Taking place from Tuesday, July 2 to Sunday, July 7, the festival promises an extensive and varied programme of drama, family entertainment, dance, circus, comedy, cabaret and spoken word events.
Theatre and fun will be popping up in unexpected places and making the most of the city’s attractive venues and open-air spaces.
Outdoor theatre fans can enjoy shows at Newby Hall and in the elegant gardens of The Old Deanery, or spend a leisurely Sunday in Ripon at the family day where puppet shows, street entertainment, music and dance run alongside visits from Wrongsemble and Rhubarb theatre companies.
Festival Saturday ( July 6) will see another whole day of pop-up shows, walkabout acts and street performers, kicking off with story-telling for breakfast, Morris dancing and fire-juggling.
Among the festival’s many free-to-watch street entertainers will be The Tea Cosies – Dorothy Dunker, Tippy Teapot and Barbara Bourbon.
Visiting acts will arrive in the city from across the four countries of the UK to join regionally-based theatre companies and performers.
The extended programme for 2024 includes a daytime Julie Andrews musical tribute, A Spoonful of Julie, a stand-up comedy-meets-storytelling event in the Storehouse Bar, an Opera Brunch at Valentino’s Ristorante and a digital theatre experience from Pilot Theatre Company taking place daily in Ripon Cathedral.
The 2024 festival also boasts its first storyteller-in-residence with Ilaria Passeri spending time in the city performing and running creative workshops for both adults and children.
As part of its developing outreach programme, the festival will also be taking theatre and music into care settings. Older people and those living with dementia will be able to enjoy non-verbal puppet theatre and mini concerts from specialist companies and practitioners.
Ms Scott said:
“We believe that theatre should be for everyone. Our varied and accessible programme of events provides real theatrical treats for seasoned theatre-goes, but also lively and low-cost opportunities for first-timers and families.
“We love bringing events to non-theatre spaces and working with local businesses and other partner organisations to create a buzz in the city which all can enjoy.”
Tickets are already selling fast for the hottest shows, including Red Ladder Theatre’s touching musical We’re Not Going Back which remembers the miners’ strike 40 years on.
Also much in demand is Barrie Rutter’s Shakespeare’s Royals in Ripon Cathedral and the music of Victoria Wood celebrated cabaret-style in Looking for Me Friend.
All ticketed events are now on sale and full details of the free shows and outdoor programme can be found here.
The introduction of a banking hub was among plans unveiled by Ripon Business Improvement District at its annual review meeting this week.
Sine the BID launched in autumn 2021, banking facilities in the city have reduced with the closure of the Barclays and Halifax branches, leaving HSBC as the only high street bank with a presence in Ripon.
A banking hub would provide a counter service where customers of major banks and building societies can carry out cash transactions. One is set to open in Knaresborough after it lost its last high street bank.
BID manager Lilla Bathurst told Monday’s meeting at the Old Deanery:
“We are seeking to bring a banking hub to Ripon to enable businesses to access and deposit cash more readily than they can at the moment.”
The HSBC Bank on Westgate.
The BID, funded through a £170,000 annual levy raised from businesses in Ripon and the surrounding area, is also looking to support the fight against crime.
Ms Bathurst said:
“We plan to invest in a Radiolink scheme for businesses to reduce shop theft and antisocial behaviour, by having a means of sharing information with each other about suspicious characters or perceived threats that they see.
“We will also ensure that all night-time economy businesses are offered this.”
The review meeting marked the BID’s second year of operation.
Ms Bathurst said the highlights included a reinvigorated events calendar featuring live music, street parties run as part of the Totally Locally campaign instigated by independent traders in Kirkgate and support for the Ripon Theatre Festival in June, which saw an 86 percent increase in audience numbers.
The BID supported the festival in its inaugural year of 2022 and this year and will again be a sponsor in 2024.
Other BID activities in the year included the installation of new boundary signs and the creation of walking maps that encourage visitor flow around the city and work in conjunction with refurbished noticeboards that contain mapping, tourist and regularly updated events information.
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In his introduction at the review meeting, Richard Compton, chair of the BID board, said:
“Our vision is to develop the unique Ripon city region as a great destination for tourism, culture, creativity, innovation and business.
“We are helping to drive footfall into our retailers, restaurants, bars, museums and attractions – both in the city centre and the outer areas – through our online presence, events and marketing.”
He added:
“Everything we do is focused on growing the profits of our members.”
The picture shows Ripon BID chair Richard Compton (left) at the annual review meeting with BID communications executive Layla Martin, BID manager Lilla Bathurst and Alex Stainsby, operations manager of the Old Deanery
Plans put on hold because of covid are finally set to come to fruition at the Old Deanery in Ripon following the appointment of Adam Jackson.
The award-winning executive chef is working with owners Rebecca and Chris Layton to provide fine dining and accommodation to sit alongside the wedding and events business the couple launched two years ago at the historic grade two listed Minster Road property.
The Jacobean mansion is situated in the shadows of Ripon Cathedral.
Ms Layton told the Stray Ferret:
“We always had an appetite for making the Old Deanery a fine dining destination that would be open on a more regular basis, but covid meant that we had to put our plans on hold.
“Now we believe that the time is right and Adam joins us as part of our exciting plans to open as Yorkshire’s newest dining experience. He is already working on menu development.”
Executive chef Adam Jackson. Picture: The Old Deanery
Award-winning Mr Jackson was head chef at the Black Swan at Oldstead, near Thirsk, where he helped it win its first Michelin star in 2012.
He then set up his own York restaurant The Park in Marmadukes Town House Hotel, which gained three AA Rosettes.
Latterly, he has worked at the Faversham Arms in Helmsley and the Bow Room at Grays Court in York.
From November, in addition to its weddings and receptions, The Old Deanery will be open for dinner, bed and breakfast stays and meals, including grazing-style meals and Sunday lunches.