Cheltenham Festival (April 28th – May 3rd) – booking opens for members on Monday 15th and for the general public on Monday 22nd.

You can download a full FESTIVAL BROCHURE HERE.The listings are pages 12 to 19.

It’s a strong line-up: Carla Bley with Paolo Fresu, Jamie Cullum, Dave Holland with Spanish flamenco guitarist Pepe Habichuela, John Scofield, Christine Tobin and Liam Noble’s Carole King project, Fly with Mark Turner and Jeff Ballard, Empirical, Kit Downes….. and Elaine Paige and some interesting events introduced by comedian Stewart Lee, and some Norwegians (real ones, not as in rhyming slang for chords.)

The new headline sponsor is Barclays. Sky Arts TV will be filming. There’s a new Arena in a marquee. The Festival, sadly, is not using two of my favourite venues, the Everyman Theatre and St Andrews Church this year.