There will be four days of events on offer this week from the organisers of the third annual festival to celebrate Fitzrovia’s rich and diverse artistic past.
Team FitzFest will put on a wide selection of concerts, drama, talks, walks, and social and fitness events and will include “a programme of music made entirely by musicians who have lived or worked in Fitzrovia over the centuries — and often played on historical instruments made in Fitzrovia”, say the organisers.
As in previous years, there will be music outside, and in local cafes and shops, walks and talks, and events at lunchtime, during the afternoon and in the evenings.
FitzFest is led by its creator Daniel S Bates, and artists for 2018 include: Griff Rhys Jones, Juliette Bausor, Robert Bathurst, and the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment.
The festival will also feature Nick Bailey, local author and Professor of Urban Regeneration, who will give an illustrated talk on how Fitzrovia evolved over three centuries as London’s “Bohemia”, sandwiched between the great Estates of the Duke of Bedford to the east and Cavendish-Harley to the west. He will conclude with a discussion of Beresford Pite’s nineteenth century architectural vision of the “Golden City”, in comparison with some of today’s more intrusive buildings.
FitzFest music and culture festival, various venues across Fitzrovia, runs from Wednesday 30 May to Saturday 2 June 2018. See fitzfest.co.uk for full details.