Our guide to the best events in Norfolk this month
PLATINUM JUBILEE
ROYAL SANDRINGHAM
Norfolk joins the country and Commonwealth to celebrate the Queen’s Platinum Jubilee over a special bank holiday weekend from June 2-5. The weekend begins with the lighting of thousands of beacons at 9.45pm on June 2, with many events including music and fireworks too. Beacons will blaze across the county from vantage points including outside Norwich City Hall, Anchor Gardens on Great Yarmouth's Golden Mile, Thetford Market Square, Sheringham seafront, King Staithe Square in King’s Lynn, Runton Road in Cromer, Swaffham Market Place, North Walsham Memorial Park, Queen’s Square in Attleborough and many more towns and villages.
The Sandringham Jubilee Beacon will be lit in the Royal Park on June 2 and celebrations at Her Majesty’s country retreat include an exhibition in the ballroom of Sandringham House until October 13.
Her Majesty The Queen at Sandringham: An Exemplary Reign and a Unique Country House explores the royal family’s affection for Sandringham with objects and photographs revealing the Queen’s love of horses and other animals and an audio-visual display focusing on the first televised Christmas Day speech broadcast from Sandringham in 1957.
On June 3 singer Katherine Jenkins will be joined by The Military Wives to perform an outdoor concert at Sandringham, and a live screening of the Platinum Party at the Palace will be shown on a big screen in the Royal Parkland on Saturday June 4.
The weekend will finish with the Sandringham Pageant of Motoring on Sunday June 5, showcasing seven decades of motoring. The pageant also includes the RAF military display team parachuting into the park and a Hurricane flypast from the Battle of Britain Memorial Flight Display. Vintage fairground rides, a vintage market, live music and the chance to see vintage and royal vehicles are also part of the day.
For full information on the Platinum Jubilee at Sandringham visit sandringhamestate.co.uk
A Mini Royal Variety Show is a one-night-only Platinum Jubilee tribute to the Queen at Gorleston Pavilion theatre on June 4. Put together by Norfolk singers Sarah Pryde and Chris Dilley, of Performers International Productions, it will include guest spots from Ben Langley, Helen McDermott and Gorleston Pavilion's Showtime Dancers, and will raise money for the Red Cross.
BROADS AND BOATING
Celebrate the Queen’s Platinum Jubilee at a riverside garden party on Stalham Staithe. The Museum of the Broads is running a free shuttle bus from Potter Heigham and Stalham town centre and has free entry all day (small charge for boat rides). Enjoy trails and activities, see exhibitions, enjoy a picnic and hear the Broadland Ukelele Band at the museum. Booking advised.
WILD PRINCES AND PRINCESSES
Little princes and princesses can find nature’s royalty on a new trail at Pensthorpe, near Fakenham, until June 5. From kingfishers to a red crowned crane (the second rarest crane in the world) young visitors will need to search high and low to locate royal guests. The trail weaves through Pensthorpe’s four stunning gardens and features fascinating facts, arts and crafts and the park’s award-winning outdoor eco-playground.
JUBILEE GARDEN AND RAILWAY
A Platinum Jubilee celebration and railway display will be held at St Saint Seraphim’s chapel and quiet garden in the old railway station at Little Walsingham. The station chapel, icon museum and garden will be open, with refreshments, 10am-4pm June 3-5.
St Seraphim’s will also be holding its annual garden party at the chapel on Saturday June 25, 2-4pm with the Pilgrim Jazz Quartet, stalls and children’s games.
VILLAGE FESTIVAL
A Platinum Jubilee programme of concerts and events has been put together by the people of Bergh Apton, near Loddon. The festival runs until December and will also raise money for the village church and other charities. On June 11 early music trio Hexachordia celebrates the first Elizabethan Age in words and music with a concert in the village church called Gloriana!
GARDENS
THETFORD OPEN GARDENS
Visit some of Thetford’s loveliest gardens on Sunday June 26 as Thetford Open Gardens returns. See gardens from tiny to huge and traditional to quirky from 11am-5pm. Refreshments available. All proceeds to St Nicholas Hospice Care. Programmes available from Leaping Hare, Kings Street, Thetford.
ONE-DAY-ONLY INVITATIONS
Enjoy beautiful gardens, masses of flowers, home-baked cakes - and the chance to help charities too as six Norfolk gardens open for the National Garden Scheme (NGS) this month. See the gardens at Home Farmhouse, Hindringham on June 4; Elsing Hall near Dereham, Barton Bendish Hall near King’s Lynn, Oulton Hall near Aylsham; Hoe Hall near Dereham, all on June 5, and Ferndale in Stoke Holy Cross, near Norwich on June 19. Book at ngs.org.uk or most gardens sell tickets at the gate too.
GUIDE DOG GARDEN
The gardens at Manor Farm, Coston, near Barnham Broom, will be open on June 26, 12-5pm, in support of the charity Guide Dogs. The garden is a delight of formal and informal planting in small garden rooms and includes a walled kitchen garden, box parterres, wildflowers and sculpture.
Owner Jamie Hambro, who is chairman of the board of trustees for Guide Dogs, said: “It’s very rewarding to share your passion for gardening while raising money for charity. It’s a pleasure to chat to visitors and share handy gardening tips and knowledge too.” Refreshments and a plant stall. Adults £5, children free.
ART EXHIBITIONS
AVANT GARDENERS
The Norfolk artists and craftspeople of Contemporary and County have a pop-up exhibition, Avant Gardeners, in the stables at Houghton Hall. They celebrate the horticultural and cultivated landscape behind and beyond the garden wall until September 25.
PICASSO PLUS
See some of Picasso’s earliest paintings in a major exhibition at the Sainsbury Centre, University of East Anglia, Norwich until July 17. Pablo Picasso: The Legacy of Youth focuses on Picasso’s work from his teenage years to his 30s (1896-1914). It compares his achievements with the artists he admired including Monet, Degas, Toulouse-Lautrec and Gauguin.
Scottish Women Artists runs at the Sainsbury Centre until July 3.
Richard Slee: Swans is at the Sainsbury Centre until August 14. The free exhibition by the ceramist and potter focuses on 14 majestic swans.
URBAN ART
City life is the inspiration for a new exhibition at Norwich Castle which runs until September 4. The World We Live In: Art and the Urban Environment includes important paintings and photographs from the Arts Council Collection, to present an unparalleled view of inner-city life across the UK.
MUSEUM EXHIBITIONS
Painting Faces: The Art of Flattery explores the history of make-up from ancient Egypt to Instagram, at Time and Tide Museum, Great Yarmouth, until June 19.
A thought-provoking textiles exhibition exploring age and dementia and featuring portraits crafted in fabric and thread, is at Gressenhall Farm and Workhouse near Dereham until October 30.
ART COLLECTIVES AND GALLERIES
EastCoastArtz is an exhibition of paintings, textiles, sculpture, driftwood items, prints and cards by local artists at Cromer Community Centre, Garden Street, from June 23-26. Free.
The contemporary artists of the Lonely Arts Club are holding an exhibition at the former shoe factory, St Mary’s Works, in Norwich. Resonance, from June 2-12 (except June 6) features the work of 18 local artists working in paint, sculpture, film, performance and photography. Free entry.
Coastlines from across the world feature in the latest exhibition at The Yare Gallery, South Quay, Great Yarmouth, until June 23. Coast includes paintings by members of the East Anglian Group of Marine Artists and photographs collated from worldwide submissions to the Global Shorelines Project.
Fish Out of Water by Jamie Andrews runs at the Fairhurst Gallery, Norwich, until July 9.
THEATRE
BLOWERS
Legendary cricket commentator and broadcaster Henry Blofeld, known to his many fans as Blowers, brings his new show My Dear Old Things to the Maddermarket, Norwich, on June 21.
Henry, a talented cricketer himself, played for Cambridge and Norfolk and scored two centuries at Lord’s. He will talk about lunching with Ian Fleming in Jamaica, discovering his connection with the Fleming’s villain, Ernst Stavro Blofold, cricket commentating and being serenaded by Noel Coward.
“It will be a lively mixture of making The Real Marigold Hotel and almost 50 years with Test Match Special. We’ll have huge fun and I can’t wait to see you all there!” said Henry.
The evening is in aid of Chance to Shine, a charity aiming to give all children an opportunity to play cricket.
NORWICH THEATRE
Dreamgirls comes straight from the West End to Norwich Theatre Royal, following the story of three young singers, Effie, Lorrell and Deena, through the ruthless realities of 1960s show business. May 31-June 11,
See Private Peaceful at the Theatre Royal from June 14-18. Set in the First World War, it is a story of courage, devotion, family, and friendship as 18-year-old Private Tommo Peaceful, tries to fight for what is right.
We Will Rock You, the worldwide smash hit musical by Queen and Ben Elton, runs at the Theatre Royal from June 20-25.
Norwich’s Threshold Theatre Company brings A Chorus Line to Norwich Playhouse from May 31 to June 4.
THE GREAT OUTDOORS
ROYAL NORFOLK SHOW
The Royal Norfolk Show is back! Hold on to your hats for an extravaganza of farming, food and fun for all the family on Wednesday and Thursday June 29 and 30. The largest two-day agricultural show in the country will have more than 3,000 animals on show, a packed Grand Ring programme, Norfolk's biggest food and drink experience, hundreds of have-a-go attractions and 700 trade stands. As well as three central themes homegrown, local living and farming champions there will be a huge Royal Salute celebrating the Platinum Jubilee and featuring more than 1,000 local musicians and dancers.
DINOSAURS AND MAMMOTHS
The dinosaurs are coming! And this time they are joined by mammoths!
The 55 GoGoDiscover tyrannosaurs rex dinosaurs and 24 steppe mammoths will be stomping through Norwich and Norfolk from Monday June 27 to Saturday September 10.
Last year’s dinosaurs are back, joined by many more stunning prehistoric works of art, each beautifully painted by an artist.
The T.rex sculptures will be prowling Norwich city centre with the new steppe mammoths in Norwich and tourism hotspots including King’s Lynn, Holt, Cromer, Holkham, the Broads, Hemsby and Pensthorpe. The mammoths have a special link with Norfolk as the oldest and largest mammoth skeleton ever found in the UK was discovered in cliffs at West Runton.
The GoGoDiscover trails, put together by East Anglian charity Break, are free but there are plenty of chances to support Break’s work with young adults leaving care. Linked activities include a hike and beach clean on July 3, colourful dino and mammoth stickers to collect and fill a sticker book (find tokens in the Eastern Daily Press, Norwich Evening News and Archant's paid-for weekly Norfolk papers), and the grand finale auction on September 28.
FARM FUN
It is Open Farm Sunday on June 12. Norfolk farms welcoming visitors and hosting rural activities for families include Castle Farm in Swanton Morley, Deepdale Farm in Burnham Deepdale, Holmebrink Farm in Methwold , Old Hall Farm in Woodton, Pound Farm in North Tuddenham, the Grange in Rollesby and Gressenhall Farm Museum. (Booking essential for some.)
SUPERHEROES
The annual Norfolk Superhero Challenge at Burnham Overy Staithe on June 18 involves swimming, kayaking, cycling, and running through sand mud and marsh – all for charity. This year the spectacular event involves teams of two will be swimming a mile with the incoming tide, kayaking four miles through creeks, cycling 45 miles and running eight miles, in aid of the Holt Youth Project.
BRILLIANT BIRDS
Urban birder David Lindo is on a mission to engage city people with nature through the medium of birds. How to be an Urban Birder: David Lindo in Conversation with Nick Acheson of the Norfolk Wildlife Trust, is at Cley Marshes Visitor Centre on Monday June 20. Tickets £19, including food.
MUSIC
GRESHFEST
Greshfest is a music weekend in the grounds of Gresham’s School, Holt, on June 18 and 19.
Hear the Urban Soul Orchestra at the Theatre in the Woods, performing alongside talented young musicians from across Norfolk. They will bring a taste of Classic Ibiza to Holt on Saturday evening. Picnic or feast on local street food. Tickets £30.
On Sunday June 19 the Greshfest arena will be open all day with entertainment, circus ride, games, an aspiring artists’ stage and refreshments. At 11.30am and 2pm everyone can join the Virtual Big Sing, a streamed choral collaboration with a host of well-known musical theatre and television names. Tickets £5, children free.
Greshfest is staged by the Friends of Gresham’s School in aid of Dementia UK and local charity The Treehouse.
SALLE
The popular midsummer concert at Salle church is back. The musicians of the Academy of St Thomas will perform Britten’s evocative Serenade for Tenor, Horn and Strings at 7.30pm on June 18. The concert also includes Dives and Lazarus by Vaughan Williams, Sospiri by Elgar and Haydn’s Symphony No 43. The programme is perfectly suited to the acoustics of the stunning church and audience members are invited to enjoy a picnic ahead of the concert.
POP GOES ALFRESCO
Elton John will be performing at Carrow Road on June 15.
The Forest Live concerts at High Lodge, Thetford Forest, include Rag'n'Bone Man on June 16, Keane on June 17 and Madness on June 18.
Simply Red play Earlham Park, Norwich, on June 25.
