Crinoline and top hats will take center stage when the Broadstairs Dickens Festival returns in June, marking its 85th year.
The festival, from June 16-19, marks the town’s connection to the Victorian author who first visited in 1837 when he was 25.
After staying at 12 High Street, where he worked on ‘Pickwick’, he took up a house, now part of the Royal Albion Hotel, where he finished ‘Nicholas Nickleby’.
He also stayed at Lawn House, which is now Archway House, where he wrote part of Barnaby Rudge and finally at Fort House where he spent the majority of his holidays in Broadstairs and wrote part of ‘American Notes’, ‘David Copperfield’ and ‘The Haunted Man’.
It was at Fort House, now Bleak House, during his last long holiday in Broadstairs that he wrote ‘Our English Watering Place’ published in August 1852 and standing as a permanent reminder of his affection for the town.
In 1937, to commemorate the centenary of the author’s first visit, Gladys Waterer, then a resident of Dickens House, had the idea of putting on a production of David Copperfield and having townspeople in Victorian dress for publicize it and the festival was born.
The Broadstairs Dickens Fellowship was established the same year and today members meet in Broadstairs on the first Wednesday of every month.
Expect cricket, gin tasting, the festival play, lectures, a Victorian summer fair and music, the grand parade and more.
Find more details at https://www.broadstairsdickensfestival.co.uk/
Program
THURSDAY JUNE 16
7pm The Personal History of David Copperfield, at the Palace Cinema, Harbor Street
7:30 p.m. Festival Play – A Tale of Two Cities at the Sarah Thorne Theater
FRIDAY JUNE 17
10.00am – 5.00pm Victorian Summer Fair on Victoria Gardens
10 a.m. – 2 p.m. Musical entertainment at the bandstand with local schools
10:45 am Have a coffee with costumed Dickens at Artfuls, John Street
11 a.m. Barry Wootton and Friends Exhibition at Holy Trinity Church
Lunchtime Dickensian Mini Golf at Lillyputt £4 in Dickensian costume Otherwise £6
1:30pm Gin Tasting on Victoria Gardens, hosted by Artfuls
2:30 p.m. Dickensian Beach Party and picnic on Viking Bay
5.00pm Dickens the Celebrity: and how Broadstairs Helped (a bit) Lecture by Terry Prue of the Ramsgate Society at York Street Methodist Church Hall Tickets: £8 in advance or £10 at the door (cash)
7pm Dickens Declaimers at the Dickens House Museum
7:30 p.m. Festival Play – A Tale of Two Cities at the Sarah Thorne Theater
SATURDAY JUNE 18
10.00am – 5.00pm Victorian Summer Fair on Victoria Gardens Meet the Victorian Street Musicians
10.45 am Have coffee with costumed Dickens at the Counting House, High Street
11 a.m. Barry Wootton and Friends Exhibition at Holy Trinity Church
11:30 a.m. Dickensians gather at the Pierremont Memorial
Noon The Grand Parade from the War Memorial to Victoria Gardens
3pm Festival Play – A Tale of Two Cities at the Sarah Thorne Theater
5 p.m. “In pursuit of Mr Pickwick: in search of the real Pickwickians”. The lecture will be presented by Dr Cindy Sughrue OBE, Director of the Charles Dickens Museum in London York Street Methodist Church Hall Tickets: £8 in advance or £10 at the door (cash)
7pm Dickens Declaimers at the Dickens House Museum
7:30 p.m. Festival Play – A Tale of Two Cities at the Sarah Thorne Theater
SUNDAY JUNE 19
10.00am – 5.00pm Victorian Summer Fair at Victoria Gardens Punch and Judy – daytime performances
10:45 a.m. Have a coffee with costumed Dickens at the bandstand
11 a.m. Barry Wootton and Friends Exhibition at Holy Trinity Church
11:30 am Outdoor church service at Preachers Knoll
1.30pm Victorian Village Cricket match on Victoria Gardens
2:30 p.m. Concert by the BAE Systems Brass Band on the bandstand
5pm The Legacy of Gilbert and Sullivan A Lecture by Bernard Lockett York Street Methodist Church Hall Tickets: £8 in advance, £10 at the door (cash)
6 p.m. Praise songs at Holy Trinity Church
7pm Dickens Declaimers at the Dickens House Museum
7:30 p.m. Festival Play – A Tale of Two Cities at the Sarah Thorne Theater
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