Port Eliot Festival – Hip, Bohemian, Clever…

At the time of writing, there are 19 weeks to go until the Port Eliot Festival 2018. One of Cornwall’s largest gatherings of its kind, and probably the most eclectic music and arts festivals in the UK, this year’s event, which runs from Thursday 26th through Sunday 29th July, promises to be one of the best in its illustrious history.

It’s set in the same location as the now legendary Elephant Fayre, which took place way back in the 1970’s and 80’s and came to Port Eliot in 1980. The current festival came into being as the Eliot Lit Fest, early in the millennium, and in the subsequent fourteen years of its existence, it has grown to offer an unsurpassed diversity of artistic work and entertainment, encompassing but not limited to music, literature, poetry, comedy, film and other visual art.

The Port Eliot Festival is the original concept of a free-ranging festival of ideas brought to fruition. It draws an astonishing collection of, and I quote, “artists, musicians, writers, comedians, performers, thinkers, makers, protagonists, agitators and scribblers” to this, one of the most beautiful corners of the Duchy. Perhaps this short video delivers the experience the festival promises, better than words ever could:

This year’s festival event will run from Thursday 26 to Sunday 29 July 2018, as always in the beautiful rolling park and woodland of the ancient Port Eliot estate at St Germans, a town/village on south east Cornwall’s Rame Peninsula.

Port Eliot is a stately home and a former priory. It has its own splendid Norman church, which is also the parish church of St Germans village. A previous church building was Cornwall’s principal cathedral. The house, which is listed Grade I, stands upon an estate of 6,000 acres (2,400ha) which extends over the neighbouring villages of Tideford, Trerulefoot and Polbathic.

The line-up for the 2017 festival gives a good impression of the vibe, featuring Hollywood’s Stanley Tucci reading a children’s story, a dozen or more varieties of Yoga, a chance to see Dame Zandra Rhodes’ apartment transported to the Port Eliot Orangery, poetry from Hollie McNish, a rooftop recital tribute to Heathcote Williams… Out of breath yet? There’s more: Presidential revelations from Emily Maitlis, a look at the workings of the mind of Underworld’s Karl Hyde, a bedroom encounter with Agatha Christie, and live performances by well-known acts such as Nick Lowe, Saint Etienne, The Orielles, Karen Elson and The Lilac Time.

Port Eliot Festival meanders from music and words through fashion and food and wanders along to wellbeing, art, film and comedy. Taking visitors on this intellectual and spiritual journey and many places in between and beyond, the intended 2018 line-up has now been announced and can be found here – porteliotfestival.com 

Port Eliot is hidden away in the “forgotten corner” of Cornwall, next to the vast meeting of rivers that flow south towards Plymouth and that form the natural border with Devon. Indeed, Port Eliot itself commands spectacular views of the viaduct of the St Germans River, also known as the Lynher.

If you’re planning to come to the Port Eliot Festival or to visit Cornwall at any time, there are a vast selection of cottages available to rent through Cornish Traditional Cottages all the year round.

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