This year, the Festival runs from 15 to 25 July, a little later than normal in order to avoid clashing with the World Cup.

There’s a selection of high quality events, often showcasing local talent, and covering dance, drama, film, literature, music, and poetry.

You can view the full programme on the festival website…

www.leytonstonefestival.org.uk

A request from Leytonstone Arts Trail…

“Leytonstone Arts Trail is organising a drive to ‘Fill Leytonstone with Art’ during the dates of the Trail: 27 June to 19 July.

To help with this, we would like members of the community to put a piece of art in the front windows of their houses. The main request is that the art is produced by someone within the household.

Children produce many excellent works of art in school, so do encourage them to put those creations on display for the period of the Trail. It will serve to brighten the streets of Leytonstone as
people go about their daily business.

Although we are driving this through schools, we encourage everyone to put their artwork on display – not just children – so please join in!”

The ex-Woolworths in Leytonstone has been secured by The Leytonstone Arts Trail for use as a venue – the arts trail runs from 27th June till 19th July 2009.

As a matter of interest, presumably that means that the council have not yet found anyone to take over the store on a permanent basis. The Woolworths in Stratford is now a “99p Store”, the one in Wanstead is a Tesco Metro and South Woodford’s is some kind of “International Supermarket” (doesn’t seem particularly popular with the locals apparently, see this Guardian article for further info).

Are you an artist with work to show? Or a venue with space to offer?

Leytonstone Arts Trail is a great chance for local artists to show their work, and for residents to see the talent that’s on their doorstep.

The Trail runs from 27 June to 19 July and involves many different visual arts events, from photography to painting to sculpture to textiles. The aim is to get art into as many venues as possible, so that artists can show their work, and venues can benefit from added custom. More information at http://www.leytonstoneartstrail.org.