Performers 2010

A talented writer, broadcaster and campaigner, Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall is widely known for his uncompromising commitment to seasonal, ethically produced food and has earned a huge following through his River Cottage TV series and books. We're delighted to welcome him to Port Eliot as one of only two festival performances all summer. Read more ...

Contemporary poet Luke Wright performs the world premiere of his much-anticipated new show Cynical Ballads at this year’s festival. A 4Talent Award winner in 2007, Luke burst into the limelight in 2006 with his show Poet Laureate, which combined a unique blend of comedy and poetry to promote to audiences why he should be considered as an alternative to Britain’s next laureate. Read more ...

Literary editor and award-winning novelist and memoirist, Diana Athill OBE has worked with some of the most important writers of the 20th century, including Jean Rhys, V. S. Naipaul, Norman Mailer and Simone de Beauvoir. She made her reputation as a writer with the candour of her memoirs and her commitment "to understand, to be aware, to touch the truth". She recently featured on the BBC’s Imagine with Alan Yentob. Read more ...

Seven years after his award-nominated debut novel, An Evening of Long Goodbyes, Paul Murray’s long-awaited second novel Skippy Dies, has been described as “one of the most funny, enjoyable and moving reads of the year” (the Guardian). We can’t wait to hear him telling us all about it at Port Eliot this year.

Susie is a writer who works with people with aphasia (a communication disability that commonly follows stroke). Her work includes: Talking about Aphasia, Aphasia Inside Out, Beyond Aphasia, and Living with Severe Aphasia. A dedicated coldwater swimmer, she's currently writing a social and cultural history of swimming. She's interviewing psychotherapist Philippa Perry. Read more ...

We are thrilled to welcome the hip and iconic fashion designer Anna Sui – “the Big Apple’s boho queen” (the Telegraph) – to Port Eliot this year. Still as fresh and cutting-edge as she was when she started out 30 years ago, Anna’s self-confessed “girlie rock and roll” designs are instantly recognisable and worn by the likes Nicole Kidman and Liv Tyler. Read more ...

Drawing influences from the British music scene past and present, Luella Bartley has made great impact on fashion since her 2000 debut show Daddy, who were The Clash? From New York City to China, Luella’s self-titled brand has global recognition. Read more ...

Sarah Mower is a leading fashion journalist who writes for Vogue USA and has a regular Telegraph style column Prêt-à-rapporter. Her international reputation within the industry has led to her recent appointment as the British Fashion Council's first Ambassador for Emerging Talent, which helps sponsor some of the country's most talented young graduates and designers. She’s also the author and co-author of four widely-acclaimed books on fashion and style, including 20 Years Dolce & Gobbana (2006). Read more ...

An iconic figure in British fashion, Barbara Hulanicki founded the now-legendary Biba boutique with her late husband in 1964. Striking a chord with an increasingly hip and free-thinking public, Biba became synonymous with swinging London in the 1960s and 1970s and was a popular hangout for artists, film stars and rock musicians, including Mick Jagger and the Rolling Stones, David Bowie and Marianne Faithfull. Read more ...

Acclaimed designer and portrait artist, Nigel Waymouth’s quintessential pop posters are synonymous with the summer of love era. He co-founded the original rock-chic boutique, Granny Takes a Trip, and together with Guy Sangster Adams will be doing a special event in the Walled Garden about the retro boutique. Read more ...

A huge hit at last year’s festival, Caught By The River returns this year with another stellar line-up lovingly compiled to evoke this celebrated online ‘fishing and culture’ magazine’s playful spirit and celebrate the best things in life – from idling away an afternoon with nothing but a fishing line and your thoughts to great books, music and cake. Expect readings, demonstrations, art, live music, DJs, sound installations, laughter, delicious fish and plenty of inspiration. Read more ...

Chris Watson is one of the world's leading recorders of wildlife and natural phenomena, producing sound installations and recordings for film, television and radio. Back by popular demand after his incredible Nature Disco last year – a festival highlight for many – Chris is visiting Port Eliot this May to make a special recording of night falling over the Lynher Estuary and around Port Eliot's woods and gardens, which he will be incorporating into an exciting new Nature Disco for 2010. Read more ...

Irish singer-songwriter Fionn Regan's critically praised debut album The End Of History received a Mercury nomination in 2007. His follow-up, The Shadow of an Empire was released this February to great acclaim, confirming his reputation as both maverick genius and one of the most talented contemporary singer-songwriters around, likened to Bob Dylan by some. Read more ...

Award-winning visual artist and shaman Marcus Coates will be landing on the Caught By The River stage as part of Ceri Levy’s unique Bird Effects get-together. Renowned for his unique understanding of British wildlife, Marcus performs shamanic rituals to communicate with animals within the spirit-world, in a bid to help seek resolution to social issues such as illegal cycle parking and prostitution. This also involves dressing up as a stag on occasions. Read more ...

The Seahawks have been on the waves since 2009, cooking up their catches, beach combing for discarded, unwanted and buried treasures. Sometimes too covered in thick tar for most to notice. Psychedelic yacht rock, hazy beach pop vibrations and marina drone are all ports of call. The Seahawks charts are drawn by Jon Tye and Pete Fowler. Read more ...

Former lead singer and Grammy-winning songwriter with The Wallflowers, Jakob (son of Bob) has released two successful solo albums, including Women and Country (produced by the legendary T Bone Burnett) this spring – which is “full of emotive tunes that walk a balance between folk and pop…tackling a conflicted spirituality, poverty, love and the profane shortcomings of life in back-country America” (PopMatters). Read more ...

Gaz Mayall is a musician, DJ, producer and record label owner. He’s the host of London’s longest running one-nighter, Gaz’s Rockin’ Blues – now in its 28th year – and the founder member of the ska band The Trojans. He also runs his record label Gaz’s Rockin’ Records. Read more ...

Hailed as Manchester’s secret weapon, The Jessie Rose Trip makes a musical statement that’s as loud and proud as Jessie’s pillar-box red hair and Biba-inspired fashion sense. They'll be hitting the stage at Port Eliot with their Motown and Hendrix inspired songs. Read more ...

Celtic folk noiristes, Songdog combine acoustic and electronic instruments to create soundscapes and vignettes on life, love and loss. They'll be enchanting us with their heartbreaking and magical songs at this year's festival. Read more ...

Fusing alt-country, pop, bluegrass, Latin and jazz, London-based Police Dog Hogan claims to pick up members like a trucker takes on hitchhikers (that is with a generous, open-minded regularity rather than with a view to robbing them in the woods). Read more ...

Back in 2003, as the annual ‘Call This Art!’ tabloid storm raged outside, Grayson Perry – hardly dressed for the weather in a delicate £2,500 silk dress – accepted the prestigious Turner Prize and said, “Well, it’s about time a transvestite potter won the Turner Prize.” He remains one of the most memorable Turner Prize winners. Quite aside from the fabulous dresses worn by his alter ego, Grayson is the creator of seductively beautiful pottery. Read more ...

The Boathouse Sculpture Park, curated by Samuel Levack and Jennifer Lewandowski, will transform the area along the banks of the river, with new site specific artworks and contemporary sculptures. Read more ...

After acclaimed exhibitions all over the world – from New York to Japan via Milan – Rotterdam-based artist, social architect and classical pianist Dré Wapenaar brings his incredible participatory performance space, ‘Tent Village Revisited’ to Port Eliot for the first time this year. Read more ...

Oil City Confidential – which has just won the Mojo Vision Award – is the final film in Julien Temple’s trilogy on the British music of the 1970s. It's the story of four men in cheap suits who crashed out of Canvey Island in the early 1970s, sandpapered the face of rock’n’roll and left all that came before in burnt-out ruin. Together with Dr Feelgood guitarist Wilko Johnson, Julien will be presenting a special screening of the film at this year's festival. Read more ...

Wilfredo is the alter ego of Matt Roper, a comedian, writer and musician. As the darling of London’s alternative cabaret scene, the grotesque, crude and deluded Wilfredo is a self-described Spanish “pop God” who has taken the UK festival circuit by storm. Read more ...

2010 will see an eclectic and colourful new area added to the festival – The Flower Show, in the Orangery gardens – curated and designed by internationally acclaimed production designer, Michael Howells. Read more ...

Mary is a writer, lecturer and internationally celebrated garden designer. Her daughter, the poet Alice Oswald, has recorded five of her poems — ‘Snowdrop’, ‘Narcissus’, ‘Rambling Rose’, ‘Primrose’, ‘Yellow Iris’ — from her collection Weeds and Wildflowers, for Mary to play between talking about raising more rarified versions of the same flowers, in a performance entitled ‘Growing Alice Oswald’s Flowers (Not the Weeds)’. Read more ...

Kitty is a renaissance woman of considerable talent and flair: she designs the packaging for chocolatier, Prestat; has her own range of cushions, jigsaws and tapestries; arranges flowers for royal occasions, parties and the likes of Dior and Galliano, and recently for Chelsea Flower Show winner, Crocus’ Tea at the Dorchester. She’ll be demonstrating flower arranging for a bullfight, accompanied by a Spanish classical guitarist. Read more ...

Tim Smit CBE, co-founder and visionary driving force behind the Eden Project – Britain’s most groundbreaking horticultural creation and visitor attraction dubbed “the eighth wonder of the world” – will be bringing his inifinite energy, expertise and charisma to a special event at Port Eliot’s inaugural Flower Show. Read more ...

Todd Longstaffe-Gowan is a landscape architect, designer and historian. He is advisor for Historic Royal Palaces and has designed gardens for Hampton Court and Kensington Palace, as well as overseeing a variety of acclaimed projects across the globe, such as the Boboli Gardens in Florence. He’ll be presenting ‘Enchanted Groves: ephemeral indoor gardening in Regency London' as part of the new Port Eliot Flower Show area. Read more ...

Zubrowka Bison Grass vodka is very excited to be hosting the Frisky Bison Cocktail bar at this year's Port Eliot Festival. The bison have rested, grass has been freshly cut, vodka flavoured and expert bar team raring to shake up some cocktails. Read more ...

Top Franco-English chef Daniel De La Falaise trained at Mark Birley’s Harry’s Bar under Alberica Penati. Later he launched George Club. He now lives in France where he keeps an extensive vegetable and herb garden for his work as a private chef. At Port Eliot he’ll be demonstrating his array of talents by turning a basket of ingredients into a mini banquet for two. Read more ...

Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Matt McAllester has covered conflicts in Kosovo, Israel and Afghanistan. Closer to home, he’ll be cooking and talking about Bittersweet: Lessons From My Mother’s Kitchen, his moving tribute to his mother, as well us making Oeufs en Cocotte a la Crème, baking a loaf of bread and bringing salted almonds for sample. Read more ...

Gioconda Scott is the driving force behind the food and kitchen gardens at the famous Trasierra guesthouse near Seville, a hotel described as “a place that nurtures dreams” (The Independent), and “an Andalucian estate of breathtaking beauty” (Conde Nast Traveller). She is also host of her own Good Food Channel TV series, Paradise Kitchen, which has allowed her recipes to be enjoyed by cooking enthusiasts across the world. Read more ...

Writer, photographer and artist returns to Port Eliot to cook recipes in the style of great writers in our Big Kitchen – this year he gives us Clafoutis Grandmere à la Virginia Woolf and Rosti à la Thomas Mann. After the success of his unique works of literary pastiche; Kafka’s Soup: A Complete History of World Literature in 17 Recipes and Sartre’s Sink: The Great Writers’ Complete Book of DIY, Mark’s new book Machiavelli’s Lawn will be published by Granta later this year. Read more ...

This year the Idler's Academy of Philosophy, Husbandry and Merriment opens its doors for the first time. Tom Hodgkinson, editor of cult magazine The Idler, has established the Academy as a resource for these three valuable but generally neglected disciplines. This year's curriculum includes Latin grammar, scything, woodwork, education theory, poetry and, of course, lashings and lashings of fun… Read more ...

Playwright and director Jez Butterworth arrives at Port Eliot fresh from Olivier Award success with his West End play Jerusalem (2009). Having been described as “a vision of Englishness”, his plays and films have won numerous awards, including Evening Standard and George Devine awards for his Royal Court Theatre play Mojo (1995), which was adapted for film in 1997 and starred Harold Pinter. Read more ...

Toby Young is a freelance journalist, food critic and the bestselling author of How to Lose Friends and Alienate People (2001) and The Sound of No Hands Clapping (2006). He’s also the leader of a parent group in Ealing hoping to set up Britain’s first ‘free school’ – a secondary school funded by the state, but free to operate independently and determine its own curriculum. He’ll be teaching us how to start a school in the Idler’s Academy. Read more ...

Hailed as art terrorist, pop troubadour and maverick prankster, Bill Drummond’s career path has been eclectic to say the least. He's managed Echo and the Bunnymen and The Proclaimers, won a Brit Award with KLF and challenged the art and music establishments with brazen works of counter-art and calculated acts of randomness. At Port Eliot this year, he’ll be teaching you how to build in the Idler’s Academy. Read more ...

Wilko Johnson is the guitarist from 1970s band Dr Feelgood, whose fierce stage performances became the classic image of rock and roll and inspired countless imitators. We’ll be showing Oil City Confidential, Julien Temple's film about Dr Feelgood, followed by a Q&A; with Wilko. Also, don’t miss the rare opportunity to hear Wilko giving an Astronomy lecture in the Idler's Academy. Read more ...

The now-legendary House of Fairy Tales explores the world of myth and legend through play, with a programme of workshops and performances throughout the weekend by characters appearing from a vast array of magical, surreal and mythical tales. Expect ceremonies, tea parties and parades as well as weird and wonderful objects and dreamlike encounters – whether you’re 2 or 92, entering the House by day or night, we guarantee you’ll be enchanted. Read more ...

The Museum of Lost Stories is a magical space packed with inspiration, led by storytellers such as acclaimed rap storyteller and media personality Charlie Dark, and assisted by Betsy De Lotbiniere, Buck and Fausta Joly, and writer and storyteller Rachel Newsome. Betsy De Lotbiniere will also be taking children on a magical trip to the Port Eliot Maze, where she will perform her own specially written Maze story.

Deep inside a beautiful Indian lair lies Grandmother’s Bed, a place that weaves magical tales of mystery and moonlight. With help from professional storytellers Rachel Rose Reid, Sara Hurley And John Gully, the bed will be home to an assortment of readings designed to fuel the imagination, as well as activities such as Jessica Albarn’s insect drawing workshop, and Charlie Dark’s story writing classes for children and teenagers. Read more ...

Analyse your dreams and discover your subconscious, make sound drawings and take part in a camouflage workshop. From potato satellites to Totem poles, the Art Trail at the House of Fairy Tales has something for everyone, young and old. Read more ...

Twisting myth, music and legend through urban eyes, award-winning storyteller Rachel Rose Reid enjoys boldly taking tales where no taleteller has been before (well, that's what they say, but she thinks they just have short memories). She'll be reading in the House of Fairy Tales. Read more ...