The Henley Festival – ready to go!
With the Regatta now well underway, The Henley Festival, which follows hard on its heels, is gearing up for a terrific 5 days of music, art, comedy, street theatre and spectacle.
The Henley Festival runs from 8th – 12th July. Last minute preparations are in full swing, even before the handover of the site and the rebuilding of stage, tentage and sound systems can begin. On order for chefs Albert and Michel Roux is a feast of fine ingredients, including, we’re told, 4,000 bottles of champagne, 10,000 bread rolls and 2,000 portions of smoked salmon. The Riverside Restaurant, where the majority of these will be served, is probably the biggest a la carte restaurant in Europe, with up to 1,000 covers per night.
That, of course, is just for the guests. We talked to Suzanne Yeates, Event Manager for the Festival. She said, “Throughout the week we also serve some 1,000 meals to artists and crew. And we have to service all kinds of requests made through performers’ ‘riders’ (the extras specified by artists in their contracts). Over the years we have found ourselves supplying 70 new towels to one band of 5 musicians, while another performer asked for clean towels that are not new. We source special kinds of honey (for singers’ voices), pens and postcards of Henley with the stamps already on them – almost anything that’s asked for.”
