EA Festival returns with star-studded line-up this summer
8 March 2022
EA Festival returns to Hedingham Castle on the 11th & 12th June with a star-studded line-up, including Maggi Hambling, Paul McKenna, Anne Glenconner and Bessie Turner.
22 Speakers/Performers will be taking the stage across the 2 days, discussing topics ranging from psychedelic drugs to political history. Each day will be capped by an enthralling musical concert, classical on the 11th and indie music on the 12th. Truly, EA Festival has something for everyone.
Cambridge Art Fair will stage an extensive exhibition of traditional and modern art spanning all three floors of Hedingham Castle’s 1000-year-old Norman Keep.
EA Festival has partnered with Wild Paths music festival and Essex Book Festival to produce and market select events.
After receiving rave reviews for its inaugural event in 2021, EA Festival 2022 aims to be adventurous, current and thought-provoking. “It will be a real smorgasbord, with something for everyone,” says Founder and Creative Director Joanne Ooi. “I choose Issues and subjects that interest our regional audience but always try to present them in a way that is illuminating to audiences all over the world.”
One such subject is well-being and mental health. Ooi has invited two experts, Dr Lauren McDonald and Dr Joanna Neill to discuss the success of psychedelic drugs for treating severe conditions like depression and trauma, and the need for legal reform to accommodate further research. Keith Abraham, who suffered severe anxiety and depression after military service in Iraq and Afghanistan, is joining the panel to talk about ayahuasca therapy, a psychoactive therapy which has allowed him to deal successfully with his own trauma and stress.
Paul McKenna, the world famous hypnotherapist, will be talking to John Lloyd about helping people overcome self-doubt and learning to thrive in the modern world, whilst trained psychiatrist Dr Sue Stuart-Smith, will be discussing her book “The Well-Gardened Mind” which analyses the ways in which people find peace of mind through gardening and connecting with nature.
Michael Sheridan, author of Gate to China, will explain how British diplomatic miscalculations and the rise of the People's Republic under Deng Xiaoping led the Communist Party to accelerate its takeover of Hong Kong - despite the promise of 50 years of freedom after 1997.
Lea Ypi will talk about the shock and confusion she felt as a teenager growing up in Albania as it shook off communism and embraced democracy. Ypi is currently Professor of Politics at LSE and her book "Free: Coming of Age at the end of History’ was chosen as Book of the Year by The Guardian, The New Yorker, The Financial Times, the TLS, The Spectator, New Statesman, and the Daily Mail and serialised as Book of the Week by BBC Radio 4.
Francis Morris, Director of Tate Modern, will tackle some of the biggest questions confronting art museums such as funding, repatriation and political correctness whilst artist Maggi Hambling will chat about creativity with the art critic and historian James Cahill.
Hannah Rothschild, novelist and former Chair of the National Gallery will be talking to William Sieghart about the power of Reinvention, whilst Justine Picardie, former editor of Harper’s Bazaar and best-selling fashion biographer, will discuss the future of the fashion industry.
At the end of each day, the talk will stop and the music will begin. On Saturday, classical music lovers will be treated to a concert by violinist Elly Suh, celebrated as one of the leading Paganini interpreters of her generation, followed by a diverse cabaret of beguiling opera tunes from mezzo-soprano Clare Presland. Sunday’s musical finale spanning pop-rock-synth-soul genres will feature the queen of East Anglia’s indie rock scene, Bessie Turner, plus hot newcomers, Maya Law and Mosiah Levi.
Cambridge Art Fair, led by East Anglian art dealer, Charlie Hart, will take over all three floors of Hedingham Castle’s 1000-year-old Norman keep, giving audience members a feast for the eyes, as well as the ears during the Festival weekend.
With such a breath-taking array of subjects including art, fashion, history, literature, politics, music, poetry, wellbeing, wine, gardening, China and even psychedelic drugs - it promises to be an incredibly fascinating and entertaining weekend.
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Media Contact:
Elizabeth Woor, elizabeth@eafestival.com, 07989 252442
Link to photos: https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1zcQBuOW5fmDKM-5ldK9Wx3ZdaGFj-d5V?usp=sharing
New festival to launch this summer on the border of Essex and Suffolk
22 February 2021
Despite COVID-19 -- or perhaps because of it -- a new art and culture festival will take place for the first time at Hedingham Castle on July 31st and August 1st.
Explaining her bold decision to launch the ambitious two-day event during the extraordinary conditions of COVID-19 lockdown, founder and creative director, Joanne Ooi explained, “COVID-19 created a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity by making it easier to invite top speakers and performers. Ordinarily, people like Evelyn Glennie and Susie Dent would be booked solid for months or even years in advance, not to mention during the popular summer months, making it impossible for us to convene a stellar line-up like the one we have been able to put together. Moreover, COVID-19 forced us to rethink the conventional festival business model from the beginning. To ensure that the show does go on, we will livestream the event - from the first year and permanently. Therefore, even if lockdown in late July prohibits live audiences, we will still stream the musical acts from the stage and convert the speaking/discussion sessions into virtual ones.”
Besides entertainment, one of the main goals of the festival is to create more connections within and between the creative community. Consequently, “whenever we could invite speakers and performers from East Anglia itself, we did. However, excellence, not geography, is the defining principle of the Festival’s curation and programming,” says Ooi. Besides the main stage, the Keep of Hedingham Castle will be filled with exhibitions of regional artists and craft artisans, as well as leading consumer lifestyle brands and purveyors from the region. “The festival is much more than just the people performing on stage,” emphasizes Ooi. “By featuring some of the most creative and unique products from the region in the Keep, we hope to make the point that creativity and commerce thrive together.”
Besides Glennie and Dent, other featured performers from media, literature, art, poetry and environmentalism are legendary TV producer, John Lloyd, comedian Josh Berry, Steinway artist Rosey Chan, spoken word poet Luke Wright and journalist Rowan Pelling. The line-up is being updated daily on the festival website and tickets will go on sale in March.
Media Contact: Emma Stewart-Smith, emma@eafestival.com
Link to photos: https://www.dropbox.com/sh/ushm2c2iu1kx64i/AACA0mea3Z3X2ggkqxjCfvDpa?dl=0
