Caught by the River

Port Eliot Festival and the CBTR Book

5th December 2008

Here at Caught By The River, we’re really excited about a couple of things that are happening next summer. First off, our book is out in June. We’ve alluded to it before in posts, but it’s nearly finished now, and it’s ace. Contributors such as Irvine Welsh, Gavin Pretor Pinney, Jon Savage, Kurt Jackson, Bill Drummond, Laura Barton and Chris Yates (amongst others) have written about their favourite river in the British Isles. We’ll post more information, extracts and early bird offers nearer the time.

The other thing is that we’ve been asked to take over and host an area at next year’s Port Eliot Festival… Here’s the details, tickets are now on sale, it’ll be a total blast – if you’ve been a follower of the site for a while, you’ll know the kind of people we’ll be taking down there with us. Hopefully see some of you down there, we’ll be the

CAUGHT BY THE RIVER AT PORT ELIOT FESTIVAL, 24-26 JULY 2009!

Port Eliot Festival is one of the UK’s most original and enticing festivals, offering a heady mix of comedy, music, film, spoken word, food, dance and performance in the magical riverside setting of the Port Eliot Estate in Cornwall. Now in its sixth year, the 2009 festival will see Caught By The River joining the party for the first time.

Taking over the Boathouse area on the banks of the Lynher, we’ll be hosting readings from our forthcoming book, An Anthology of Writings of British Rivers, which includes contributions from the likes of Bill Drummond, Gavin Pretor-Pinney, Irvine Welsh, Kurt Jackson and Chris Yates. We’ll be announcing a load more stuff in the New Year.

Saint Etienne’s Bob Stanley and pop culture historian Jon Savage will be discussing the history of pop music and the birth of the teenager, playing the musical evolution of both ideas. The area will also feature a bird watching hide (doubling as a performance stage), fly fishing displays and a Nature Disco. Alongside contributions from the likes of Chris Watson, there’ll also be a tribute to Roger Deakin with daily playbacks of radio recordings he made.

Other delights in store for the 2009 festival include: One Minute Disco dishing up a crazy impromptu party on the hour, every hour; Gavin Turk’s now-legendary House of Fairy Tales, set deep in an enchanted woodland rhododendron garden; Barbara Hulanicki of Biba bringing your vintage back to life in the Walled Garden; Edwyn Collins performing a solo set on the Bowling Green; and Gaz Mayall whipping up the rock n’ roll to a frenzy in the Cabaret Tent. Plus William Dalrymple, Louis de Bernières, Hanif Kureishi, Arthur Smith, Hardeep Singh Kholi, Kamila Shamsie, Simon Munnery, Rebecca Lenkiewicz, Justine Picardie, Michael and Emily Eavis, Alain de Botton, Patrick McCabe, Alexander Waugh, Chris Watson, Hadley Freeman, Mohsin Hamid, and Gavin Pretor-Pinney – with the full line-up to be announced in early 2009.

A wonderful array of experiences await – from a séance to a massage on the estuary, dancing the night away to laughing until it hurts, sampling the magnificent selection of food stalls to kids’ games in the supervised children’s area. Be great to see you there!

A limited number of Early Bird weekend tickets are now available – buy now to save up to £30
Go to the festival site for more details.