Entertainment News

Compton Verney Art Gallery and Park is celebrating after securing a £56,000 grant from Arts Council England (ACE) to help it improve the way it communicates and engages with current and potential visitors. The money is coming from ACE’s Museum Resilience Fund, which announced today it is investing £1.17 million in fourteen museums in the East and West Midlands. It is supporting a range projects that will make sure museums have the resources they need to make the most of their collections.

Hailed by the UK's leading vacation rentals website, Holiday Lettings, as one of the top ten things to do in August, the award-winning Bournemouth Air Festival returns in two weeks' time with a staggering line-up of aviation displays and three nights of chart-topping live music thanks to support from the armed forces, business partners and independent patrons.

A 450bhp racecar that competed in the 2015 24 Hours of Le Mans featuring a host of 3D printed parts will be on display at the Thinktank science museum in Birmingham from 28th July for six weeks. The car is a 300 km/h DOME S103 prototype that was fielded by British racing team Strakka Racing at the round the clock Le Mans endurance classic last year.

Cornwall's first giant inflatable Aqua Park has become a huge success and already smashed targets for the year after welcoming its 15,000th guest on to the water since it opened in April. The floating Aqua Park at Retallack Resort and Spa near Padstow has been bounced on, slid down and conquered by thousands of groups, birthday parties and businesses, making it one of the region's most popular adventure activities this summer.

Wolverhampton Grand Theatre and the Arena Theatre recently announced a new partnership which will see the cities two theatres combine to rehearse children and young people in a series of drama workshops beginning in the autumn. A phenomenal response to the scheme has seen a large waiting list already form, as spaces for both the junior (9 – 13 years) and senior (14 – 18 years) groups sell out within three hours of going on sale.

Birdland, Bourton-on-the-Water, are celebrating International Owl Awareness Day on Thursday 4th August with a day full of owl-tastic activities for families. Everyone will love learning more about owls, owlets and regal raptors at the Park. Children can undertake a fact-finding mission across the parkland finding out more about strigiformes as well as how the females look after their chicks, catching their prey at night in their terrific talons and of course what owl pellets actually look like.

Visitors to Blenheim Palace will be able to discover exactly what the butler saw over the summer holidays, with Living History characters in the Palace Great Court. Taking place regularly throughout the day, seven days a week, the free guided tours will explore the impressive Great Court in one of the grandest stately homes in the country. In the company of either the butler or the housemaid, the informative and entertaining tours bring the history of the house vividly to life and offers a 'behind-the-scenes' experience with lots of information about life below stairs.

The Natural History Museum’s touring Wildlife Photographer of the Year exhibition at Wolverhampton Art gallery is leaving visitors stunned by the must-see images displayed in an ultra-modern lightbox format. In its first week of opening the response from customers attending the show has been exceptional. Few visitors will have imagined that the display could evoke such an emotional response but so imposing and atmospheric is the light-box framing and so engaging are the stories within and indeed behind these sensational photographs that it is almost impossible not to be moved by them.

Summer visitors look forward to the spectacle of horseback jousters and flying fireballs when they go to Warwick Castle, but the sight of over 40 adult peacocks strutting around the grounds is also a memorable moment. Now the public is being asked to suggest names for a brood of newborn peachicks (baby peacocks) born at the Castle this month. The young birds are the first peachicks to hatch naturally at the attraction in over four years.

Bilston Craft Gallery is to showcase a range of motorcycles made in Wolverhampton. The exhibition ‘Motorbikes: Made & Remembered’ will run at the Mount Pleasant gallery from Saturday, July 30 to Sunday, September 18. Through the latter part of the 19th Century and early 20th Century Wolverhampton and Bilston had a dozen companies producing iconic motorbikes. Famous motorbike manufacturers such as Sunbeam, AJS, Wolf and Norton produced machines that were sold across the world - their brand name synonymous with quality, safety and speed!

It’s that time of year again when libraries in Wolverhampton are encouraging young bookworms to take on the Summer Reading Challenge. The theme for this year's event is The BFG - Big Friendly Read - to commemorate the centenary of author Roald Dahl’s birth and the launch of The BFG film in cinemas. Young people signing up for the Summer Reading Challenge, a national promotion by the Reading Agency, are encouraged to read six books throughout the summer, collecting rewards along the way and ultimately a special certificate (subject to availability).

A trio of penguin chicks has hatched out at Birdland Park & Gardens. All three chicks, which were born earlier this month at the Gloucestershire wildlife attraction are doing well and keepers are pleased to see how they are rapidly growing. Birdland is home to a colony of captive-bred Humboldt penguins who live alongside UK's only breeding group of king penguins.

The next best thing to sipping a cocktail is watching it prepared. In Barnstaple's newest lounge and bar, seeing a 'Smoke & Mirrors' (served under a glass cloche smoked with Applewood chips to infuse the bourbon whisky), a 'Vodka and Oreo Shake' (made with real Oreo cookies) or a 'Gin Scroppino' (made with lemon sorbet and prosecco) being created is all part of the experience.

The time has come for the Olympic and Paralympic Games of Rio de Janeiro. The kick-off will take place on August 5th at the Maracanã Stadium in Rio de Janeiro. During the three weeks of the Olympic Games, the public is invited to watch the Olympic Games at a Lounge space located at the entrance of the Embassy of Brazil in central London. The Lounge will showcase what lies beyond Rio, the 'marvellous city', and will present other tourist attractions of the State of Rio de Janeiro with its amazing coastline, historical cities and tropical forests.

Wolverhampton residents could win Grand Theatre Panto tickets by giving their views on a proposed new energy scheme. City of Wolverhampton Council has launched an online survey to find out what residents think about energy suppliers, how likely they are to switch, and how they would feel about buying energy directly from the council. The survey is part of the feasibility study being carried out by the Local Government Information Unit (LGIU) to discover the best model for a proposed new energy supply company.

Legendary Beatles Sir Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr reunited for an evening of peace, love and musical bliss as they celebrated the 10th anniversary of The Beatles LOVE by Cirque du Soleil. Following its creative EVOLution, which introduced vibrant new acts, music, technology, video, choreography and more, the show proudly performed to an energetic crowd with a full standing ovation at the conclusion of the anniversary performance.