Twinwood Festival
| Twinwood festival | |
|---|---|
| Genre | Vintage music including swing, jazz and jive |
| Location(s) | The former RAF Twinwood Farm Airfield in Clapham, Bedfordshire, England, UK |
| Years active | 2002-present |
| Website | |
| www |
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The Twinwood Festival, incorporating the Glenn Miller Festival of Swing, Jazz and Jive! is an annual vintage music festival, held every August bank holiday weekend at Twinwood Arena in Clapham, Bedfordshire.[1]
A Brief History
Twinwood Festival is held at the former RAF Twinwood Farm Airfield in Clapham, Bedfordshire, England.[2] On 27 August 1944, Glenn Miller & his AAF band performed an outdoor concert at RAF Twinwood. The stage was a flatbed trailer, and the audience, which consisted of the R.A.F. personnel who worked at RAF Twinwood sat on the grass not far from the Twinwood Control Tower. Later on that year on 15 December 1944, Glenn Miller boarded a Norseman aircraft, from RAF Twinwood and he was never seen or heard of again. The disappearance of Glenn Miller from RAF Twinwood Airfield sparked a mystery that has fascinated the world ever since.
After World War II, R.A.F. Twinwood was decommissioned and the site lay almost untouched. In 1989 the company Twinwood Events was formed and work started on the restoration of the Twinwood Control Tower to convert it into the Glenn Miller Museum. In 2002 a celebration Glenn Miller concert was held to mark the completion of the restoration. The success of the Glenn Miller concert led to the birth of the annual Glenn Miller Festival, which was held over the August bank-holiday weekend, as the weekend often falls on or near 27 August.
The current festival
Since 2002 the Glenn Miller Festival had grown, and in 2007 the name was changed to "Twinwood Festival, incorporating the Glenn Miller Festival" in order that a slightly wider genre of music could be performed at the festival, and it is now one of the largest vintage music festivals in Europe. Many well known swing, jazz, and jive bands and orchestras from the UK and Europe have performed at the festival, including The John Miller Orchestra, The Glenn Miller Orchestra, The Syd Lawrence Orchestra, Chris Smith and his String of Pearls Orchestra, The Jive Aces, Blue Harlem, Bill Baker's Big Band Sticky Wicket and His Swing Band, The Kings Cross Hot Club, The RCA band, the Mike Sanchez band, Lola Lamour and Max Raabe with the Palast Orchester.
Festival organisers, brother and sister, Tom and Alice Wooding said:
"We strive to provide a quality event, quality facilities and quality music, which is the reason for the success of the Twinwood Festival and its rapid growth."
In 2008 Twinwood Festival had four stages, each with a large sprung wooden dance floor in front and a host of live bands that performed continuously throughout the three day festival amongst numerous other attractions.
In 2010, a further dance floor was added.[3]
In 2011 Twinwood Festival held its tenth anniversary event and has continued to grow year on year with a bigger line up of artists, more venues, larger dance floors and many other events and attractions across the whole site.
Twinwood Festival 2013 is planned to be the largest event yet and will have a bigger and more varied range of live bands and artists than ever before along with 10 separate venues across the site hosting constant entertainment throughout the whole weekend. There will also be larger dance areas than before and 100 vintage traders and numerous other attractions including Vintage Fashion shows, 40s hangar dances, jazz bars, a choice of late night dances and entertainment, a large traders village, a vintage hair and beauty salon, air displays, classic vehicles, museums, dance lessons and workshops, a large selection of food stalls and atmospheric bars, including the Officers Mess Bar, good camping and parking facilities.
