Shrewsbury Summer Season

Welcome to the 2008 Shrewsbury Summer Season, a packed 100 days of arts events presented in the unique way that only Shrewsbury can offer.

The festival harks back to the 18th Century when we were amongst the pioneers of the very English concept of “The Season”.

Shrewsbury would be full of people excitedly promenading around the streets, squares and “shuts” to attend concerts, plays, parties, balls and exhibitions.

Here in the 21st Century we are reviving and revising this tradition to offer residents and valued visitors a Shrewsbury Summer to remember.

We are delighted that for the fifth year running it has been possible to bring together, for both local and visiting audiences, a huge range of theatre, music and visual arts. Much of it is home-grown, but we have also some top professional artists performing as part of Shrewsbury’s great Summer programme.

Highlights include Heartbreak productions’ A Midsummer Night’s Dream and Peter Pan in the grounds of Shrewsbury Castle, Haydn’s Creation at St. Chad’s, the magical Quarry Concerts, Donizetti’s Don Pasquale in the Square with Garden Opera; Sir Willard White performing once more at St Chad’s and, of course, Shrewsbury’s very own Folk Festival featuring, amongst others, the great Richard Thompson.

In addition, there are exhibitions, concerts, kids’ events, markets, plays, including a revival of Arthur’s Plough, as well as the ever-popular and unique Shrewsbury International Street Theatre Festival.

There is also the chance to relive the moment Paganini played at the famous Lion Hotel!

We hope that you will be there to support this great festival. You are promised the warmest of welcomes and the best of times, whatever you choose to attend, all presided over by the nearly completed Theatre Severn, a venue which symbolises Shrewsbury’s commitment to, and support of, the arts in every shape and form.

John Moore, Chair of Summer Season Steering Group
Lezley Picton, Cultural Services Manager