Spirits high during wet open air festival
Autumn 2007
The stage by daylight at this year's festival and after dusk as conductor Alistair Lilley led the British Philharmonic Concert Orchestra and presenter Mark Langley provided amusing ditties.
WET weather didn’t do any favours for the 15th open air Wimbledon Cannizaro Festival from 14-29 July. But despite all, some shows were sell-outs and even those hit by rain were acclaimed by enthusiastic audiences. The group of local business investors who have backed the festival for the past two years were to meet in September to consider what to do about next year.
Comedian Jimmy Carr proved most popular of all when better weather coincided with the festival’s final evening. However all of the comedy shows - Paul Merton, Jo Brand, Jongleurs etc - were great successes, as were many of the musical acts.
Other star acts included Suzi Quatro, the Hollies, Aled Jones and after last year’s success, jazz legend Humphrey Lyttelton There was also a performance of Puccini’s opera “La Boheme”, always a favourite, and a production of Shakespeare’s “Romeo and Juliet”.
The Friends of Cannizaro Park evening on
Friday 27th July was one of those when pouring rain totally failed to dampen
spirits. The evening chosen was Musicals at the Proms and wine was provided in
the Friends’ marquee before the performance with tickets for the concert itself
costing a discounted £22 in all covered seating.
The British Philharmonic Concert Orchestra, tenor Andrew Forbes-Lane and soprano
Jeni Bern combined old favourites from “The Sound of Music”, “Grease” and other
shows with the
traditional flag-waving proms, complete with “Rule Britannia” and
Elgar’s “Jerusalem”.
Before the show, some Friends
distributed hundreds of flyers to concert-goers, pointing out Merton's neglect
of the park and contrasting the empty and once colourful flower beds.