CORNISH CULTURE

Padstow harbour boats decorated Cornwall UK

Padstow Obby Oss (Weds 1 May) & St Ives May Day (Mon 6 May) – if you fancy seeing some traditional May Day celebrations, Padstow and St Ives will be making merry the old fashioned way. Particularly keen revellers in Padstow can be seen singing in the streets from midnight on 30 Apr but the main Obby Oss celebrations begin the next morning with local people parading and dancing with their Obby Oss’ (hobby horses). St Ives’ May Day celebrations were revived relatively recently but involve choirs, brass brands, dancing round the may pole and the crowning of a May Queen and King.

Flora Day, Helston (Weds 8 May) – the people of Helston have been celebrating the ancient tradition of Flora Day for hundreds of years. It is a spring festival to mark the end of winter and arrival, vitality and fertility of spring. The shops and houses are decked out with bluebells, laurels, gorse and other greenery and the dancing begins from seven in the morning, continuing all day. Eighty couples dance through the streets – as well as several shops and houses – to drive out the darkness of winter and usher in the light of spring.

MUSIC & FESTIVALS

Tunes in the Dunes, Perranporth, (Fri 17 – Sun) 19 May – the UK’s biggest festival on a beach held on the white sands of Perranporth kicks off May’s music festivals. Headliners for 2024 are McFly, Craig David and Ocean Colour Scene, with plenty of Cornish talent too. Also on that weekened is LostFest, Lostwithiel, (Sun 19 May), a quirky one day free festival in Lostwithiel with something for everyone!

SkyBar takes the best of the aprés ski vibe and turns up the heat to create the highlight of your summer. Building on the amazing sell-out successes of recent years, with excellent music and plenty of drinks to compliment the awesome sunsets, in some beautiful South West locations, the first of which is Watergate Bay, (Fri 24 – Sun 26 May). Also Fri 24 – Sun 26 May and better for families with younger kids is the Kindred Spirit Festival in Launceston – a rural setting, camping and some lesser known and up-and-coming bands make this a gentle intro to festivals, well-loved by Launceston locals.

Closing out the month is The Great Estate Festival, Scorrier (Fri 31 May – Sun 2 June) billed as “The most rambunctious Garden Fête!” Expect major international headline acts and a mix of comedy, theatre, music and the arts, all within the beautiful grounds of Scorrier Estate, with headliners The Stranglers, The Darkness and Soul II Soul. Look out for the vintage fairground, woodland silent disco, secret gin garden, The Whispering Woods, burlesque sessions, Madame Wong’s House of Wrong, classical corner, glamping, hot tubs, The Sanctuary and the Swamp Circus and much more.

GET OUTSIDE / GET FIT

Silent Disco Beach Yoga Fistral Beach Newquay Cornwall UK

Plenty to choose from, whether you’re watching, or taking part! Over 180 surfers will battle for champion titles in 20 different divisions, from Under 12’s through to the 45+ kahunas at the English Nationals surf competition, one of the highlights of the surfing calendar. Watch from the beach, cliff top, or, the Living Space at Watergate Bay Hotel (Sat 4 – Mon 6 May).

Head just down the coast to Gwithian on Sun 5 May, for Silent Disco beach yoga with Alicia Ray, or Fistral, where on Mon 6 May you’ll find the first Silent Disco Beach Yoga with Ocean Flow Yoga for the season. Book online then bring your mat to enjoy the music while you’re taken through a yoga practice. Beginners welcome, we’re big fans of these outdoor musical themed practices. £12pp.

Wadebridge top places to live The Camel Estuary view to rock from padstow

Running more your thing? Options include the Wadebridge Tri – The Camel – on Sun 5 May (plus mini tri, along the Camel Trail), The Coast to Coast Copper Trail – an 11.5 Mile trail run on Sun 18 May that follows two historic transport routes across Cornwall that first opened in 1812, helping the mines transport copper to the ports of Portreath and Devoran, plus Park Runs every Saturday in loads of locations.

Better on your bike? Try the RNLI Land’s End Sportive 2024 on Sun 12 May. Three different cycling routes to raise money for the RNLI. Choose from the The RNLI200 – a 200km challenge to celebrate 200 years of the RNLI saving lives at sea which is two laps of The Lifeboat Sportive, a 100km road based route through the rugged and beautiful West Cornish coast. Or, try The Penlee Pedal – a scenic 40km-ish loop from Land’s End to Mousehole, Penlee lifeboat station and Penzance.

Catch the end of the bluebells across Cornwall, or head to the Enys Gardens Bluebell Festival, St Gluvias, nr Penryn, Falmouth, (Sat 4 -Sun 12 May). The historic Enys Gardens are famous for their incredible display of bluebells but you’ll have to plan this one a bit and book in advance. While there is a Mansion House, it’s not open to the public aside from occasional events – here it is all about the gardens, which are said to be some of the oldest in Cornwall. As with all good 18th century, a lot is formally laid out in an Italianate style with long vistas, but here the 30 acres have been split into themed and many much less formal than you’d expect.

LITERATURE / CREATIVE

The Mayven Festival (Fri 10- Fri 17 May) will be taking over venues across Cornwall, bringing a folk theme to this year’s spring offering – a multi-season extravaganza of comedy, cabaret, festivity and feminism, storytelling and silliness. Working with female artists and performers and championing the work of female writers, directors and producers, the Mayven festival is a spectacular celebration of the power of women in midlife and will bring an uplifting celebration of the freedom it brings this spring.

Fowey Festival of Arts and Literature is a literary festival based in Daphne du Maurier’s beautiful hometown of Fowey, is back for its 26th time in 2024 (Fri 10 – Sat 18 May). Featuring a wide range of guest speakers with talks, panel debates, workshops and concerts, there’s plenty for all Daphne fans with the programme including a variety of authors including Bryony Gordon, Louis de Bernièrs, Harriet Evans, Veronica Henry and more.

Creative Scilly (Fri 10- Sun 19 May) is a cultural festivalthat celebrates the islands’ culture and creativity on a scale beyond anything hosted on the islands before and includes music, theatre, poetry, storytelling, visual arts and island life. Building on the foundations of the long established and well-loved Art Scilly week, the Creative Scilly Festival will feature an eclectic mix of events and hands-on workshops, demonstrations, public art displays, performances, gallery openings and fun nights out across the five islands.

ART & ART EXHIBITIONS

Stuart Rowe, Bodmin Moor, Drawn by Nature

Drawn by Nature is a free show (until Fri 3rd May) at The Gallery, Truro High School for Girls, featuring an eclectic body of work inspired by nature – from the woodlands of Luxulyan to the coral reefs of South Africa. Edward Rowe’s accompanying poetry is inspired by his brother Stuart Rowe’s art, derived from a winter on Bodmin Moor (above). Also don’t miss the final days of GO WHERE YOU FEEL GOOD, Emma Digerud-White‘s compelling series of paintings that delve into the profound need to seek out spaces and experiences that evoke joy, love, and a sense of safety at Circle Contemporary, Hawksfield, Nr Wadebridge (ends Sat 4 May). And it’s your last chance to catch the UK’s first large-scale exhibition of work by Finland born artist Outi Pieski is over at the Tate St Ives (ends Mon 6 May) The exhibition at Tate St Ives presents Pieski’s figurative landscapes, photographs and prints alongside sculptural works.

Kurt Jackson The Cornish Seal Exhibition Jackson Foundation Gallery

Kurt Jackson’s The Cornish Seal, is on in St Just (until 10 August). A normal, almost everyday experience for anyone who spends time on the Cornish coast, seals seem to pop up whenever we look out to sea; are they looking for us? “I decided to spend the last few years dedicating as much time as possible watching, studying and trying to understand them – their form and movement, their haunts and habits and in turn create a body of work inspired by them.” – Kurt Jackson.

New at Penlee House in Penzance is a major exhibition of the Newlyn School artist Harold Harvey, held to commemorate the 150th anniversary of his birth (opens Weds 1 May). Penzance-born Harvey was a true ‘son of Cornwall’, and a notable member of the Newlyn School artists’ colony, which flourished from 1880 to 1940. The son of a bank manager, he grew up in Penzance, and after studying under Norman Garstin and a spell in Paris, he settled to a quiet life in Newlyn with fellow artist Gertrude, painting the Cornwall he knew from the inside.

Over at The Eden Project a new exhibition will present a powerful and immersive film by internationally acclaimed British artist and Turner Prize nominee Cornelia Parker (opens Fri 24 May) – THE FUTURE (Sixes and Sevens) (2023) offers a poignant exploration of the future through the eyes of primary school children, where six and seven-year-olds candidly share their hopes, fears, and visions for the future.

For the first time, five of Mark Rothko’s Seagram murals are being shown together at the Tate St Ives from Sat 25 May 2024. The Seagram murals were donated by Rothko the Tate in 1969 after being completed by the artist in his studio in New York in 1958, where they were a initially painted as a commission for the Four Seasons restaurant in the Seagram Building. Despite completing the work – and a second and then third version- to the space specification of the commission, after a visit to Europe and Cornwall in 1959 Rothko decided that the restaurant was not the right place for the installation and it was never completed. The works move away from his original brighter colours and are instead more red and black, inspired by visits to Florence. An exciting opportunity to see multiple Rothko’s in Cornwall!

Beatriz Milhazes, O Diamante, 2002. Contemporary Art Collection "la Caixa" Foundation. Photo Vicente de Mello. © Beatriz Milhazes Studio
Tate St Ives

Also opening Sat 25 May, Tate St Ives presents Maresias, a major exhibition of the work of Brazilian abstract artist, Beatriz Milhazes. The exhibition celebrates the evolution of her approach over four decades, while also highlighting nature as an enduring and increasingly important theme in her work. Turner Contemporary, who first staged Maresias, have collaborated with Tate St Ives to reimagine the exhibition to be seen this summer in Cornwall, bringing it to a second UK coastal destination.

Maresias refers to the salty sea breeze that is part of Milhazes’s everyday life in the coastal city of Rio de Janeiro. The exhibition encourages us to reflect on our own relationship to the environment. Milhazes says, ‘my context has been surrounded by forests, mountains and coastal experiences; the development of a ‘tropical’ way of thinking. It was very special to exhibit my work at Turner Contemporary and now at Tate St Ives – to smell the sea salt breeze of the same ocean as Rio de Janeiro. Same water, different cultures, but in the end it is all about life.’

Other exhibitions around Cornwall include Nina Brooke’s latest exhibition, which marks a significant moment in her artistic journey at North Coast Asylum in Newquay. The Last Wave is Nina’s final exhibition on a coastal theme as she moves onto new subjects – until Tues 21 May.

There are many galleries large and small across Cornwall, where you can see the work of local artists but during this special event, almost 300 Cornish-based artists will open their studios to visitors. Cornwall Open Studios gives a chance to see some of these artists and a unique insight into their workspaces (Sat 25 May – Sat 4 June). Participating studios will display an orange ‘O’ outside, so you know you are welcome to pop in and say hi, though opening times vary, so check the catalogue before making a special visit.

THEATRE / MUSICALS / DANCE / COMEDY

At Hall for Cornwall, catch Jesus Christ Superstar (until Sat 4 May) and Simon Reeves To The Ends of the Earth (Sat 11 – Sun 12 May) as well the Banff Film Festival and English Touring Opera.

Muddy-award winning theatre The Minack is showing The Massive Tragedy of Madame Bovary by Gustave Flaubert, lovingly derailed by John Nicholson (ends Thurs 16 May).

FURTHER AFIELD

Royal Mews, open now, City of Westminster, London

Royal lustre, glittering coaches and a horse or two. Love the pomp and ceremony of royal events? Head straight for the Royal Mews – a working royal stables responsible for the King’s road travel. A stone’s throw from Buckingham Palace, you can get up close to the fairytale-like Gold State Coach used in coronations since 1821 and the Rolls Royce Phantom VI used in royal weddings. You can even climb aboard a reproduction landau for that essential photo opp, tack up a (wooden) pony, and ‘ooh and aah’ over the other carriages and shiny bits of kit. A great day out for all ages. Tickets: adults from £17, Kids (5-17yrs) from £8.50 and under 5s free.

Lots more Muddy picks in London this spring here.

Toby's Garden Fest — Toby’s Garden Festival

Green-fingered readers will no doubt already have their advance tickets to Toby’s Garden Festival 2024 at Powderham Castle (Fri 3 – Sat 4 May) to enjoy talks from the likes of BBC Gardeners’ World presenters Rachel de Thame and Sue Kent, and shop from 200+ plant nurseries, garden and craft stalls.

Need more inspo for May Half Term? Watch this space for Muddy’s bumper guide!

BOOK AHEAD FOR

Racing Green hospitality at Silverstone, Fri 5 – Sun 7 July, Towcester, Northamptonshire

Planning to join the petrolheads, A list and Netflix film crews at this year’s Formula 1® Qatar Airways British Grand Prix 2024 at Silverstone? We’ve got an exclusive Muddy ticket offer where you only need to book the Sunday (the all-action day!) rather than the whole weekend.

Royal Cornwall Show, Wadebridge, 6 – 8 June

The big one in the country calendar, the Royal Cornwall Show has been hosted for more than two centuries, and the inset days of the summer term are timed round it, and even the (then) Prince of Wales attending in 2022. As you’d expect from a traditional country show there are animals, entertainment, a flower show, and competition classes of all kinds – will 2024 bring a visit from Will and Kate (unlikely, but maybe another Royal will deputise?).

Eden Sessions, The Eden Project, various June and July

Eden Sessions Lionel Richie 3 by Ben Foster

Crowded House (12 June), Fatboy Slim (15 June), Suede & Manic Street Preachers (29 June), The National (2 July), Rick Astley (3 July), Tom Grenan (5 July) and JLS (13 July) join the stellar line up of stars who have appeared on the fast becoming iconic Cornish stage.

Rock Oyster Festival, Rock, 25 – 28 July

Celebrating the best of music and food, Rock Oyster Festival, held at Dinham House near Wadebridge, is a north coast favourite for everyone, including yours truly. Expect live music – including from headliners Sugar Babes, and Bombay Bicycle Club with more to be announced soon, circus acts, yoga and a chance to try some of the best oysters, mussels, and artisan produce around. This family-friendly event also offers lots of fun for kids and includes loads of wellbeing activities like SUP, surfing, yoga and hot-tubs taking in the gorgeous view of the Camel Estuary.

May Days! What’s on near you this month

You may also like