This Week’s Highlights

It’s the second last week of the summer holidays. The chemist has sold out of aftersun, the washing machine is jammed with sand, you’re on your fifth pair of flip-flops, and grandpa won’t stop fretting that his neighbour forgot to water his flowerbeds. Relax. Take your mind of your worries and keep the children 

MUSIC: THE NORTH NORFOLK MUSIC FESTIVAL, WEEK TWO

The Doric String Quartet round up the NNMF on Thu and Fri 23 and 24 Aug

The 14thNorth Norfolk Music Festival continues with a special matinee screening on Fri 17 Aug in the North Creake Village Hall. The film is ‘Through Lotte’s Lens’. It was made by local film producer Tony Britten and tells the story, thanks to photographer Lotte Meitner-Graf, of the Jewish emigres of the 1930s who so enriched Britain’s cultural and artistic scene. The concerts this week include the Doric String Quartet, the Gould Piano Trio and a two-piano concert on Wed 22 Aug evening. Most concerts are in South Creake’s St Mary’s church – famous for the carved knights in the ceiling – with the evening concerts preceded by a ‘Festival Supper’ (very reasonably priced and with a different set menu each day) in the marquee. See the website, www.northnorfolkmusicfestival.comfor the full programme and menus.

KIDS: DUCKS, WATERSPORTS, AND BUILD-A-BOATY-MCBOATFACE

It’s the biggest duck race of the season at Wighton on Sun 19 Aug

It’s the Grand National of duck races, the Wighton Duck Race, on Sun 19 Aug at 3pm. They take duck races very seriously in the village. This year there are three categories: owners’, childrens’ and veterans’. Whether that last one applies to the ducks or the racers is unclear. The grand prize for the owners’ race is a whopping £25. A sweepstake is also open. Ducks can be purchased from the Carpenter’s Arms pub in the village (recently renovated and a lovely pint) for a mere £1. More kids fun to be had at Burnham Overy Staithe’s Watersports on Sat 18 Aug and boat-building competition on Mon 20 Aug; at the Beach Café in Wells with Eco-crafts on Thu 23 Aug; and all week at Norfolk Wildlife Trust’s venues. See below for kids’ theatre. 

THEATRE: FARCE AND SITCOM AT SHERINGHAM, HIGH JINKS AT HOLKHAM

The Midnight Gang break into the Walled Garden at Holkham Hall on Thu 23 Aug

Two of the Sheringham Little Theatre’s summer rep shows this week, if you’re quick. Last chance to see Alan Ayckbourn’s ‘Living Together’ on Fri and Sat 17 and 18 Aug. Then hang around til Wed 22 Aug and catch ‘Wife Begins at Forty’, a ‘madcap’ farce by Ray Cooney. The Little Theatre’s summer rep is one of the few still going in the country, and excellent quality. Who knows, you may well see a star of tomorrow earning their acting ‘chops’. For the kids, the outdoor theatre show in Holkham Hall’s walled garden this week is ‘The Midnight Gang’, based on the David Walliams book. And the Little Theatre also squeezes in a kid friendly matinee on Fri 24 of ‘Jumble Tales’.

MUSIC: MORE MUSIC FOR ALL SORTS 

Alistair McGowan will have you practicing scales at the Auden Theatre, on Sat 18 Aug

Sat 18 Aug sees a full gamut of genres. In Blakeney Harbour Room the ‘Commitment Brothers’ do their schizophrenic double bill, one half Blues Brothers, one half Commitments. It will be loud and lively. Meanwhile in Binham Priory there’s a sedate concert by Yang Xuefei, one of the world’s leading classical guitarists, and in the Auden Theatre in Holt, ex-actor and still impressionist, Alistair McGowan gives a concert and talk ‘Introduction to Classical Piano.’ Having started himself at 49 years old, he is well qualified to educate and enthuse. He’s also immensely entertaining.

OUTDOORS AND OPEN DAYS AND NORTH NORFOLK’S WIMBLEDON

Watch top amateur tennis or enter the kids in the round robin at the Hunstanton Lawn Tennis Tournament, from Sun 19 Aug

Edificate yourself and the children at one of the many open days this week. On Sat 18 Aug there’s a rare tour of the Pensthorpe Nature Reserve gardens, the RNLI Lifeboat Station in Wells has an open day on Sun 19 Aug, and at Creake Abbey on Thu 23 Aug there’s a two-hour ‘workshop’ on ‘Big Painting’ for children. All week it’s the Hunstanton Lawn Tennis Tournament, the biggest amateur tennis tournament in the UK. Starts Sunday 19 Aug. As every year there is a ‘fun’ U10 and U12 round robin tournament that can only be entered from Sun 19 Aug to midday on Tue 21 Aug. Turn up and sign up your mini Murray, sit back with Pimms, enjoy.

STICK AROUND FOR…

Buy a book and party on at Voewood all weekend, 25 and 26 Aug

… The North Norfolk Book Fair combined with a bit of a house party with live music at Voewood beside Holt, on Sat and Sun 25 and 26 Aug; the Aylsham Show on Bank Holiday Mon, 27 Aug, which claims, with good reason, to be one of the few surviving ‘proper country shows’; the summer gift fair at Creake Abbey (do we smell a summer sale?) on Sat 25 Aug, and for the MAMILS and PUFFINS (look them up) among you, the Ride North Norfolk bicycle event based from Fakenham on Sun 26 Aug.

CURRENT ART SHOWS

Tideliners 2018, Village Hall, Burnham Overy Staithe, to 19 Aug, 10.30am-5pm.

Connection: Open 18, Wells Maltings, to Sun 30 Sep, 10am-6pm. www.wellsmaltings.org.uk

Tracey Ross, Norfolk Horizons, Creake Abbey Café, to 16 Oct, 9am-5pm, www.creakeabbeycafe.com

Shirley Carnt Open Studio, Coastguard House, Thornham, Sat 18 Aug to Sun 2 Sep, 10am-5pm. www.shirleycarntartist.com

Methodist Modern Art, Community Matters Café, Cromer, to Fri 17 Aug, 10am-4pm.

Capturing the Moment, John Patchett, Picturecraft Gallery, Holt, Fri 17 Aug to Wed 22 Aug, 9am-5pm. www.picturecraftgallery.com

Gareth Jones, Sea Things My Way, Norfolk Wildlife Trust Cley, Wed 22 Aug to Tue 4 Sep, 10am-5pm. www.norfolkwildlifetrust.org.uk