Swinter is Coming

A new festival is coming to Swindon to chase away those winter blues.

Swinterfest will take place from Thursday 30 January to Sunday 2 February at four venues across Old Town.

The venues are The Tuppenny in Devizes Road, The Castle in Prospect Place, The Vic on Victoria Road and The Beehive on Prospect Hill.

The new festival is the brainchild of the people behind The Swindon Shuffle and will include bands from the rich Swindon music scene.

Organiser Ed Dyer said: "We've been running The Swindon Shuffle now for nearly 20 years and it has built up a real community around it.

"We felt that we needed an event during the winter months to bring that community together once again and to act as an event that will go into battle against that really miserable time in January and February. We think of it as an injection of happiness into Swindon at a time of year when it's really needed.

"It will also be another opportunity to raise funds for Prospect Hospice, as well as support grassroots music and live music venues.

"This year, we're starting with what we do best and galvanising the music scene to take part. But the plans are to expand the festival in years to come to include different aspects of the arts from comedy to dance and theatre to art.

"We're finalising the line-up right now and I can tell you it's going to be one hell of a party. Swinter is coming and it's going to be great."

swinterfest.org.uk