Lichfield Festival

About

Lichfield Festival promises a host of fabulous artists and exciting events taking place in the cathedral city between 6-16 July 2023. A melting pot of world-class entertainment and creativity, this summer’s Festival mixes music of all kinds, from folk to classical, jazz to gospel, with theatre, literary, community and family events. 

London Community Gospel Choir opens the 2023 festival with a rousing concert at Lichfield Cathedral, one of several incredible headliners including Kate Rusby, Nitin Sawhney CBE, Melissa Errico, BBC National Orchestra of Wales, Rachel Podger, Julian and Jiaxin Lloyd Webber, Grimethorpe Colliery Band, Jessica Walker, The Lord Chamberlain’s Men, Tibetan Monks of the Tashi Lhunpo Monastery, Bobby Seagull, Tracy Borman.

Among other classical highlights, returning Associate Artist pianist Danny Driver performs both solo and with violinist Jack Liebeck; Liberata Collective & Ensemble Hesperi perform Handel’s opera Orlando with period instruments; and Charles Court Opera returns with Gilbert & Sullivan’s comic masterpiece The Mikado. Another exciting staging sees the return of The Lord Chamberlain’s Men who present Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet on the Cathedral Lawn in the way Shakespeare would have first seen it – with an all-male cast, in the open air, and with Elizabethan costume, music and dance. 

Culture from the furthest reaches of the globe includes the mesmerising chant, music and dance of the Tibetan Monks of the Tashi Lhunpo Monastery, master musicians N’famady Kouyaté and Gasper Nali who fuse African, jazz, pop and indie elements, and Kabantu who play and improvise folk music from around the globe. 

A mini-season ‘It’s a Drag’ looks at gender and cross-dressing in theatre, opera and the arts. Author Janet Tennant and guests investigate this long tradition, mezzo soprano Polly Leech sings operatic ‘trouser roles’, and vocalist and Associate Artist Jessica Walker takes a cross-dressing musical tour through the decades.

Comedy takes a look at the life of an orchestral triangle player; there’s a one-woman show from Lichfield-born actress and writer Katie Arnstein; and music, high heels and fairy lights feature in Jenni Winter’s Mother’s Ruin.

For younger audiences, Waterperry Opera’s music and theatre version of Roald Dahl’s Little Red Riding Hood & The Three Little Pigs is a must.

Providing an explosive finale to this year’s events, the free Festival Fireworks take place on Saturday 15 July in Beacon Park.