First wave 2011 line-up

Now in its eighth year, Port Eliot is a magical combination of books, food, music, art, comedy, fashion, films, flowers, wildlife and water, which defies categorisation. Settling itself into the spectacular grounds of the ancient Port Eliot estate in southeast Cornwall (the oldest continually inhabited dwelling in the UK) the festival provides inspiration and surprises for all ages at every turn. Jumping up and down a lot and lazing by the river are equally valid and encouraged. (Find out more about the Festival here)

We are pleased to announce our first line-up for 2011, which includes:

On the music stages, including the Caught by the River stage

British Sea Power, Bellowhead, Andrew Weatherall, The Jim Jones Revue, Caitlin Rose, Secret Sisters, Frank Turner, Louis Eliot & The Embers, Hannah Peel, Sea of Bees, The Rockingbirds, Laetitia Sadier, Willy Vlautin, Gravenhurst, Treecreeper, Guy Pratt, Gaggle, Lulu & The Lampshades, RSVP, Trevor Moss & Hannah-Lou, Diamond Family Archive, Conquering Animal Sound, Mik Artistik’s Ego Trip, Manières des Bohemiens, The Half Sisters, Antony Elvin, The Severed Limb, LushLife, Frootful, The Langley Sisters Mad Dog Mcrea, A Beach Supreme

Literary and cabaret stages

Caitlin Moran, Daisy Goodwin, Jon Ronson, John Cooper Clarke, Hanif Kureishi, Sam Bain & Jesse Armstrong (Peep Show), Sir Peter Blake’s Art Bus, Simon Garfield, Rosie Boycott, John Hegley, Emma Kennedy, Edmund de Waal, Simon Munnery, Franny Armstrong, Murray Lachlan Young, Lucy Siegle, Georgia Byng, Joe Dunthorne, Simon English, Patrick French, Owen Sheers, Roy Hutchins, Patrick Kinmonth, Hari Kunzru, Richard King, Stephen Parker, Gillian Slovo, Marcel Theroux, Helen Walsh, Sarah Winman, Luke Wright.

Martin Scorsese’s Paradiso Outdoor Cinema

Nightly double-bills chosen specifically for Port Eliot by one of the acknowledged greats of filmmaking. Martin Scorsese’s selections will be screened from twilight on each evening of the festival in the festival’s Paradiso Cinema, set in gardens created by landscape gardener Humphrey Repton, with a backdrop of a secret estuary of the river Lynher and a railway viaduct designed by Isambard Kingdom Brunel.

Food

Port Eliot is a festival with food at its heart. This year’s festival will feature cookery demonstrations, discussions and invitations to tuck into beautiful food all around the site. Highlights include the Jamie Oliver-inspired Fifteen Cornwall restaurant; Thomasina Miers - broadcaster, cook and owner of London’s Wahaca Mexican restaurants; Peter Gordon - pioneer of Pacific Rim cooking, author of the Sugar Club Cookbook, named after the groundbreaking restaurant where he was executive chef; Daniel de la Falaise - Franco-English chef running cookery demo in the Big Kitchen; Chris Sherville - resident chef at Port Eliot, whose tented fish restaurant in the walled garden has become an irresistible fixture at the festival, will run fish cooking demos in the Georgian Big Kitchen; Fat Hen Forager - wild food foraging and cooking school in west Cornwall, run by professional forager, ecologist and cook, Caroline Davey; Lindsey Bareham - author of Pasties, an exploration of the Cornish pasty; Rose Prince - food writer and journalist, author of The New English Kitchen and The New English Table, The Good Food Producers Guide and The Lost Kitchen.

The Port Eliot Flower Show

The idiosyncratic Port Eliot Flower Show will be curated by acclaimed resident production designer of Ballet Rambert Michael Howells, judged by gardener Dan Pearson and milliner Stephen Jones and organised by the Women’s Institute. This year’s show, in the Orangery gardens, will feature a series of special events, including an exhibition by Tessa Traeger and a round-table discussion involving head gardeners from three great gardens in Cornwall. The call for entries has just gone out – find out more here.

Fashion

A new fashion stage, curated by internationally renowned style journalist and British Council’s Ambassador for Emerging talent, Sarah Mower and featuring photographer David Sims. In her ambassadorial role, Sarah Mower supports some of the country’s most talented young graduates and designers. Full fashion line-up to be announced soon.

Caught By The River

For the third year running, Caught by The River, the online haven for music, nature, rambling, gardening, poetry, film, art and angling, will take up its position in the quarry in front of the boathouse looking over the Lynher estuary. Aside from the sparkling music line up mentioned elsewhere, Caught By The River will offer DJ sets, conversations, readings and archive radio broadcasts on, amongst others, nature, aquatic music, endangered birds, rock literature and the underground music press. Guests include Rough Trade boss Geoff Travis, former British Sea Power manager Roy Wilkinson, legendary music PR man and author Mick Houghton, former editor of Zigzag magazine Andy Childs, exotic record purveyor Jonny Trunk, writer John Niven and journalist and broadcaster Emma Warren, to name a few. Much more at www.caughtbytheriver.net

Wild swimming in the St Germans Estuary

Festivalgoers are invited to leap into the estuary of the river Lynher - a particularly beautiful part of the site - whenever the mood takes them. All ages are welcome to dive in and enjoy themselves at high tide. Last year, hundreds jumped in the river. A simple, bracing, highlight of the festival.

The Idler Academy

The Idler Academy of Philosophy, Husbandry and Merriment, established by Tom Hodgkinson, editor of cult magazine The Idler, features demonstrations and performances from a whole host of characters. This year, the Academy’s workshops will range from limerick writing with John Cooper Clarke to learning Latin.

The Poetry Takeaway

The world’s first purpose-built mobile poetry emporium comes to Port Eliot. The Poetry Takeaway produces free, made-to-order poetry, delivered fast to festivalgoers by a group of the UK’s leading performance poets and writers. Every customer is given a
personal performance of their particular poem, along with a handwritten copy, open or wrapped.

Martin Parr’s Port Eliot Exhibition

Martin Parr will roam the festival, taking photographs throughout and creating a live exhibition in the basement of the house at Port Eliot, which will evolve alongside the festival.