Comic actor and director Mel Smith and designer Cath Kidston are among the local celebrities appearing at this year's Bedford Park Festival, Chiswick's biggest community event.

The fortnight-long Festival began on Saturday June 13th, with the Green Days weekend.

Mel Smith was born and brought up in Chiswick, and his mother still lives there. He will head the entertainment line-up for 'The Last Night of the Festival', in St Michael & All Angels Church by Turnham Green tube station.

Cath Kidston - one of Britain's leading and best-loved designers - moved into Chiswick some years ago and her company has a branch in the Chiswick High Road. She'll be discussing her career and designs with the BBC's media correspondent Torin Douglas, as well as choosing winners in a creative competition.

Other local actors and residents involved this year include Kevin McNally and Elizabeth McGovern.

Kevin, whose films include Pirates of the Caribbean, is currently appearing alongside Jude Law in Hamlet. He will perform one of Alan Bennett's 'Talking Heads' dramas, A Chip In the Sugar, in St Michael's Parish Hall on Monday June 22nd. Elizabeth was recently seen in the comedy Freezing on BBC One and in Complicit, at the Old Vic. She will be one of the readers in Benjamin Britten's The Company of Heaven, alongside Patrick Malahide, from Minder, Middlemarch and The Singing Detective.

This year's Bedford Park Festival in Chiswick will help raise funds for two local charities, as well as arts and community projects at St Michael & All Angels, including its new organ fund.

One charity is the Upper Room, which for 18 years has been helping the homeless, vulnerable, and socially disadvantaged of West London. It serves over 30,000 meals a year.

The other is the Microloan Foundation, based in Chiswick, which provides finance to small start-up businesses in the Philippines and Malawi. Its patron is Bob Geldof.

The 2009 Festival will began with the traditional Green Days fete and Craft Fair on June 13th and 14th, on Acton Green Common, opposite Turnham Green tube station. That is followed by a fortnight of arts and community events, including all the regular events - the Bedford Park Summer Exhibition, the Open Gardens, the Bedford Park Walk, a children's musical and a photographic competition - as well as concerts, talks, meals and a few surprises.

The Festival gets great support from local businesses and media. Almost 150 firms gave it their backing last year, through sponsorship or by donating prizes, free meals and publicity. Their names are listed, with links to their websites, on the Festival website: www.bedfordparkfestival.org

Full Calendar of Festival Events

 

June 19, 2009