Autumn Festival 2018

Our popular Community Stage opens the Festival this year. Join us at The Old Court Artspace to enjoy and support a variety of locally based talent offering anything from acoustic folk and roots, or reinterpretations of rock, soul and pop classics on the ukulele, to progressive rock and a children’s performing arts school.

When Princess Charlotte, only child of King George IV, died in 1817 her uncles abandoned their mistresses, rushing to marry and produce the next sovereign of the House of Hanover.

Bryony Gordon was not a runner. A loafer, a dawdler, a drinker, a smoker, yes. A runner, no.

St George's Chapel is very much in the spotlight this year for merely the latest in a parade of important Royal events it has hosted over the last five hundred years. But what was it intended for?

The beautiful city of Vienna forms the backdrop to this lunchtime concert. Strauss was in his early twenties when he composed his passionate Violin Sonata. Inspired by his new love and future wife, soprano Pauline de Ahna, it hints at the glamorous, swirling scenes of Der Rosenkavalier that would follow.

Shami Chakrabarti’s latest book, Of Women, is a powerful, urgent and timely polemic on why women still need equality, and how we get there.

The Philharmonia Orchestra make a welcome return to the Waterloo Chamber with three great works of German Romanticism, conducted by rising-star conductor Antony Hermus.

With her mother Emmeline, Christabel Pankhurst co-led the single-sex Women’s Social and Political Union founded in 1903 and regarded as the most notorious of the groups campaigning for the parliamentary vote for Women. A First Class Honours Graduate in Law, she was determined and charismatic, a captivating speaker who revitalised the women’s suffrage campaign.

Frances Gorges, daughter of Elizabeth I’s favourite lady-in-waiting, finds herself accused of witchcraft and becomes embroiled in the plot to oust James I from the throne.

Join Windsor Carriages on a horse drawn carriage tour along the now world famous Royal procession route enjoyed by Prince Harry and Meghan Markle on their wedding day.

Windsor has not just been a favoured residence for royalty over the centuries, but also a preferred place for their weddings.

In this beautifully illustrated talk, Julie looks at some of Britain’s country houses occupied between 1939 and 1945 by people who would never otherwise have set foot in such opulent surroundings.

Join The Temple Ensemble for a rare opportunity to hear this unique grouping of instruments played in Norden Farm's acclaimed acoustic.

Two titans of Roman historical fiction go head-to-head in a gladiator match of epic proportions.

On 13th October 1868, the feast-day of St Edward, the Catholic Church in Windsor was opened with a grand Pontifical High Mass performed by a choir from London in the presence of Archbishop Henry Manning.

Enigmatic, mysterious and sub textural, songwriter Leonard Cohen was an unflinching character with an exact sense of prose and wry humour, whose passing marked the end of an era.

The Story of Babar, the Little Elephant has captured the imaginations of children and adults ever since the famous French book was published in 1930.

Some of the world’s most talented young opera singers from the Jette Parker Young Artist Programme, Covent Garden, come together for a gala performance of popular operatic arias and ensembles accompanied and curated by Oliver Gooch.

Pick up a free entry map from Brewhouse Yard and follow the trail for a unique chance to see the art, memorials and treasured objects through which Eton College remembers the fallen of the Great War.

In the composer of Jerusalem and I Was Glad, many imagine a stolid Victorian gentleman. Featuring the works of the composer, a narration of his life and musical items which demonstrate his influences and experiences, this evening will reveal that Hubert Parry was a much more intriguing and unconventional character than that.

Hidden Windsor’ does not necessarily mean places off the beaten track (although this tour will take in a few of these), but items of street furniture and buildings that residents and visitors pass by without a second glance. 

In the sequel to her bestselling book A History of Britain in 21 Women, journalist and broadcaster Jenni Murray celebrates great women from around the world – rescuing some from obscurity and shining a new light on familiar names.

To commemorate the centenary of the end of World War I, returning Festival favourites Orpheus Sinfonia present a specially curated programme with leading Baritone Roderick Williams.

To mark the centenary of the Armistice of World War I, The Choir of St George’s Chapel, Windsor Castle perform music including works by composers associated with the Chape

Join Michael Rosen, the well-known children's writer, poet, performer and broadcaster, as he reflects on a career both varied and long.   

Beneath the splendour, Windsor Castle is more dangerous than a jungle’ wrote a guest in the 19th century. Windsor has a long and illustrious history but it has not always been so. Behind the finery there have been dark times of war, plague, persecution, disease ... and ghosts both in the town and within the Castle.

One of the country’s best-loved novelists, Patrick Gale came to the attention of many in 2017 with his original BBC television drama Man In An Orange Shirt.

Our walk takes us alongside the Thames as it flows between Windsor and Eton.  We hear the stories of how people over the years have managed to cross it, navigate it, tame it, modify it, use it, harness it, and own it; and of course those who have failed to do so.

In this talk journalist Matthew Dennison will reverse this neglect, uncovering the complexities of her multifaceted life: an 18th century woman of great political astuteness and ambition, a radical icon of female power.

Celebrated artist Hughie O’Donoghue will talk about his series of magnificent paintings known collectively as Seven Halts on the Somme.

In the company of Nick Day, Head of Visitor Operations for The Crown Estate, this walk offers an opportunity to discover different aspects of the daily life of Windsor Great Park, and to learn more about its natural and national history.

Salley Vickers, the author of nine highly acclaimed novels, comes to Cumberland Lodge where she is a trustee to talk about her latest book, The Librarian.

Views of Eton College have long been a popular subject for topographical artists and watercolourists, and the College is fortunate to hold an extensive collection of watercolours.

This concert, an annual event and firm favourite among seasoned festival-goers, showcases the very best music from pupils at Eton College against the impressive backdrop of Eton College School Hall.

The Booker Prize winning poet and novelist Ben Okri and the remarkable painter Rosemary Clunie have combined on a unique book. The Magic Lamp is a collaboration, a jointly created work rooted in storytelling and fairy tales, in which words and images have equal place, each giving inspiration to the other. 

The Cry, by Adrian Snell, is a powerful and deeply moving musical production that weaves together a requiem with songs inspired by the words of child victims of warfare.

The Bluejays have quickly established themselves as the UK’s most authentic vintage rock ‘n’ roll band. Performing the greatest hits of the 1950s from the likes of Elvis Presley, Buddy Holly, Chuck Berry, The Everly Brothers and Eddie Cochran, their authenticity has attracted a huge following and caught the eye of many of the original artists.

A regular feature of Windsor Festival programmes, this year’s Schools’ Coffee Concert will present a varied mix of choral, instrumental, ensemble and solo items performed by local children.

For more than seven decades the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra has been at the forefront of music-making in the UK. Together with Windsor and Eton Choral Society, members of Taplow Youth Choir, Voci Chamber Choir and Quire Voices, they present two of the finest and best-known works ever composed for voice.

Commissioned to write an official biography of Queen Mary, the Queen’s grandmother, James Pope-Hennessy was reluctant to take on the task. But encouraged by his brother, who thought the endangered species of royalty would make for fascinating observation, his book was published to great critical acclaim in 1959.