Aylesbury Town Centre is buzzing with excitement as WhizzFizzFest, Aylesbury’s fantastic family-friendly literary and arts festival, comes to town this Saturday 22 June with a fabulous line up, promising fun for all.
The event kicks off at 10.30am, opening with its spectacular festival parade which will be starting at the top of Kingsbury this year. As over 20 local schools from the Vale take part alongside musicians, bands and dance groups, the streets will come to life with huge hand-made puppets, costumes, music, dancing and laughter – celebrating the wonder and excitement of children’s literature and their imaginations.
With local authors and story-tellers in The Exchange, performances on the Runway Stage, Teddy Bear’s Picnics in the Bucks County Museum, a funfair in Kingsbury and award-winning authors in the main marquee – no matter which corner of town you stumble across, you are guaranteed to find something that will make you smile!
This year, the WhizzFizzFest main marquee, sponsored by Hale Leys, will be welcoming multi-million-copy selling Cressida Cowell, creator of the incredible How to Train Your Dragon and The Wizards of Once series, and Nick Butterworth, award-winning author and illustrator of the adored Percy the Park Keeper. The marquee will also host Queen Park Arts Centre’s 500 Words Challenge – The Final Chapter, which celebrates Aylesbury Vale’s young aspiring authors, supported by performances from Adele Peters Performing Arts School.
Following the sad passing of Judith Kerr, who was due to be attending this year’s event, AVDC are putting on a free-to-attend ticketed event with readings, stories and face painters in the marquee, to celebrate the life and work of one of the nations most loved author and illustrators.
Dame Darcey Bussell will be returning with her DDMix Dance Fitness schools’ dance competition, this time putting on quite a show at Aylesbury Waterside Theatre with performances from Aylesbury Vale schools, Britain’s Got Talent’s magician Maddox and Aylesbury Rock Choir.
Situated at the top of Market Square, the Runway Stage has an amazing schedule for all to enjoy. Festival goers can expect the return of WhizzFizzFest favourites, such as the fancy dress competition and Young Artist’s Showcase, plus new special performances by Unbound Theatre at The King’s Head.
With bubbleologists, balloonists, story tellers, live music, dancers, audio library recording sessions, creative workshops and the debut of the WhizzFizzQuest, sponsored by Aylesbury Garden Town – this year truly is promising to be bigger and better than ever before!
For more information, the full programme for the day and to buy tickets, visit WhizzFizzFest or search @WhizzFizzFest on social media.