Goosfest 2026 – A huge welcome to this year’s Goosfest
Once again, we’ve put together a great range of events, concerts, exhibitions, workshops and cultural experiences offering something, we hope, for all tastes.
Goosfest is designed to offer high quality entertainment and art to our local community, in local venues with ticket prices as low as we can afford to cover our costs. The festival has built up a strong reputation over the past 19 years, and we’re all looking forward to this year’s programme of activities.
For the past few years, Goosfest has begun with Goosfest Art Weekend over the last weekend in September, providing a wonderful display of art by more than 20 professional artists, on show in the beautiful Victorian barn at Orchards Farm opposite Bidlea Dairy, Twemlow. We are also working closely with Cheshire Clay Studio at Lowes Farm to provide ‘taster’ clay workshops. A wide range of workshops are being offered, including painting, printmaking, various pottery sessions, cookery and pétanque.
Goostrey Archives are organising an educational display on Saturday September 26th in The Crown pub, with photographs and memorabilia covering education in the village. And the Art Weekend also sees the first of our musical concerts – a 4pm performance on Sunday September 27th in St Luke’s Church, Goostrey, by Warrington Male Voice Choir.
The following weekend, our festival of music and arts begins, and spans 10 days from Friday October 2nd to Sunday October 11th . We open on Friday 2nd with ‘Two Pianos’ in Goostrey Village Hall– an energetic romp on piano and percussion through the golden age of rock ‘n roll music.
On Saturday 3rd , we’re delighted to promote an event at Clonter Opera Theatre with jazz-age septet ‘Easy Rollers’. Sunday 4th sees a welcome return by Bridgewater Hall organist Jonathan Scott, to give the Goosfest Organ Recital in St Luke’s Church at 4pm. In the evening, we’re hosting one of the UK’s top performance poets, Luke Wright, with his ‘Later Life Letter’ event in the village hall.
Goostrey Flower Club is again decorating St Luke’s Church for the duration of the music and arts festival, with club members putting together a wonderful selection of arrangements around the theme ‘A year in flowers’.
Monday October 5th sees our ever-popular Comedy Night in the village hall, and there’s an entertaining folk-rock Americana concert there the following night by Rob Clamp and The Ashmen.
Our annual joint event with Goostrey Guild will be on Wednesday October 7th , with a lecture at 10.30am in the church. This year’s talk is by James Smallwood, about Moorcroft Pottery.
On Thursday afternoon, October 8th , we have our relaxing classical music recital by performers from the Royal Northern College of Music. This is held at The Swettenham Arms and will be followed by an afternoon buffet. Thursday evening hits a different note with ‘Sex and the Tudors’ in the village hall – a rip-roaring tumble through the sexual exploits of the Tudors – not for the faint-hearted! A talk by Lesley Smith, curator of Tutbury Castle, it’s sure to be fascinating.
Friday evening October 9th sees our annual ‘Goostrey Goes to…’ event and this year, we’re off to Wales. Leading Tom Jones tribute act Robb Dee will show us the green, green grass of home, after a buffet supper in the village hall.
Saturday October 10th features ‘Jive Talking’, a leading Bee Gees tribute show, at Clonter Opera Theatre – sure to be a memorable musical finale to this year’s festival. Goosfest ends on Sunday 11th with a play in the village hall, ‘Land Girls’.
There’s plenty on offer this year, so book when you can and enjoy top quality entertainment on your doorstep.
Goosfest Events
Your Goosfest needs you!
In the meantime, if you’d like to be involved in any way, please get in touch. There are only a few of us on the Goosfest Committee and we need more help if we’re to continue in the years ahead. If you don’t fancy joining the Committee itself, there are other ways in which you can support the festival. We’re looking for:
- Practical help for events – helping to set up staging, chairs, tables etc for events in the Village Hall and at other venues
- Someone with experience in stage lighting, or a willingness and interest to learn, to assist our current lighting director
- Home cooks who might be willing to prepare a hot meal or buffet item, to be delivered to the venue for the artiste(s) on the night.
- Volunteers to help staff the bar (there’s a rota so even if you can support one event, it would be appreciated. The larger the team of volunteers, the fewer times we’ll need to ask for help)
- Accommodation for a performer. If you have a spare bedroom that a weary artiste could retire to, rather than a long journey back home after a performance, let us know. We appreciate that accommodating artistes depends on personal willingness to host, according to any local health-protection requirements at the time. Hopefully, the environment will be more conducive to hosting guests next year.
