Festivals
The Glastonbury Festival of Contemporary Performing Arts takes place most years in Pilton, near Shepton Mallet, attracting over 170,000 music and culture lovers and entertainers from around the world. The Big Green Gathering was held in Somerset on five occasions between 2002 and 2007.
The annual Bath Literature Festival is one of several local festivals in the county which include the Frome Festival and the Trowbridge Village Pump Festival, which, despite its name, is held at Farleigh Hungerford in Somerset.
The annual circuit of West Country Carnivals is held in a variety of Somerset towns during the autumn, forming a major regional festival, and the largest Festival of Lights in Europe. It is an annual celebration featuring a parade of illuminated floats (termed "carts" locally), in the English West Country. The celebration dates back to the Gunpowder Plot of 1605. The series of parades in each town now form a major regional festival. Some carts cost in excess of £20,000 to build and are the result of thousands of man hours work throughout the year. The event's purpose, as it has always been from the start, is to raise thousands of pounds for local charities from money collection carts in the two hour procession.
In several villages Punkie Night is celebrated each October. The Somerset Gurgle is an ancient ritual to celebrate the first apples of the new season. Usually held in late August or early September, it is thought to date back to the 17th century and to pre-date wassailing.
Many villages had Friendly Societies or Clubs between the late 18th and early 20th centuries. The use of Friendly Society Brasses as emblems was particularly prevalent in Somerset and the surrounding counties.
Read more about this topic: Culture Of Somerset
Famous quotes containing the word festivals:
“This is certainly not the place for a discourse about what festivals are for. Discussions on this theme were plentiful during that phase of preparation and on the whole were fruitless. My experience is that discussion is fruitless. What sets forth and demonstrates is the sight of events in action, is living through these events and understanding them.”
—Doris Lessing (b. 1919)
“Why wont they let a year die without bringing in a new one on the instant, cant they use birth control on time? I want an interregnum. The stupid years patter on with unrelenting feet, never stopping—rising to little monotonous peaks in our imaginations at festivals like New Year’s and Easter and Christmas—But, goodness, why need they do it?”
—John Dos Passos (1896–1970)