When: 27th – 30th July 2017
Where: Port Eliot, St Germans, Cornwall.
This weekend, the Port Eliot estate will open its doors once more for the annual Port Eliot Festival. For four days over the final weekend in July, festival goers have more or less entirely free reign over the stately home and gardens. They can get lost in the garden maze, swim in the estuary, or wander down to where the Black Cow Saloon sits nestled beneath a Roman Viaduct, trains rattling overhead on their way to Penzance. In the morning the good people at Sipsmith’s Gin might rouse attendees with a Bloody Mary (if they’re that way inclined), delivered to the campsite in the back of Mary’s Bloody Ambulance. All that, and we haven’t even gotten to the programme yet.
Port Eliot is, of course, a celebration of words and music. This year’s headliners are pop legends Saint Etienne who take over The Park on Friday evening to play tracks from over the course of their 25-year career and recent album Home Counties. The bill also includes South London troubadour Matt Maltese, singer songwriter Karen Elson, indie pop artist Rose Elinor Dougal, and Melt Yourself Down, who will bring their amalgamation of post-punk, jazz and North African musical styles to The Park on Saturday night. Other musical highlights of the weekend include sets from Flamingods, Dead Pretties, This is the Kit, Girl Ray and Hooton Tennis Club, as well as The Libertines’ John Hassall with his band The April Rainers.
On top of the musical programme Port Eliot also features an imaginative and engaging roster of literary and spoken word events, as well as workshops and demonstrations. Some offerings this year include author Matt Haig, performance artist Cosey Fanni Tutti, poet Luke Wright, and actors Stanley Tucci and Michael C Hall.
Tickets for 2017 have sold out.
