QUEUES formed early as eager people were ready to snap up the first tickets for Frome Festival, with some events selling out quickly.
The opening day saw the Cheese and Grain box office serve 110 customers, many spending hundreds of pounds on tickets for the 180 events scheduled and ticket sales have been going well since.
As in previous years, the hottest tickets were for the Frome Tunnels walk, which explores parts of the intriguing labyrinth beneath Frome’s cobbled streets. All four tunnels tours sold out within an hour of opening.
Martin Dimery, the festival director said, “There were people queuing from 7.00am for the 10.00am opening. It was wonderful to see such support even in trying times. In all we took over £5,500 in sales.”
Other popular sales were for folk singer Cara Dillon, who won Radio 2’s Folk Album of the Year Award; brilliant Radio 4 and TV comedian John Shuttleworth, and the special concert – ‘Christina Rossetti – Her Life in Frome’ which features the writer’s published letters from her time in Frome, interspersed with some of the greatest chamber music of the period. The concert features the Amati String Quartet and Frome-born actress Tina Waller.
Comedy is well covered in the Frome Festival this year with two top female comics appearing at the Merlin Theatre. Lucy Porter and Jo Caulfield have both appeared many times on ‘Have I Got News For You’, ‘Mock the Week’ and other TV and radio panel shows, and are renowned on the stand up circuit.
Lucy Porter is a highlight of the festival on the opening night, Friday 8th July. Jo Caulfield, who has her own Radio 4 show, appeared at the Frome Festival last year to a sell-out audience. Her observations on Frome, and in particular Catherine Hill, immediately reduced the audience to hysteria, and Jo is certainly well worth another visit on Friday 15th July.
Tickets for both shows are selling fast and can be bought from either the festival’s box office at the Cheese and Grain on 01373 455420, or from the Merlin direct on 01373 465949.