Bedford kite festival and classic car show returning
A celebration boasting kite displays and retro cars will return this summer – and it is expected to attract tens of thousands of people.The Bedford Kite and Motoring Festival, a free biennial event, will take place on 21 and 22 June across Russell Park, The Embankment and Mill Meadows.Adrian Grubb, one of the organisers, believes up to 40,000 people could flock to the town and the 300 cars on show will highlight "quality over quantity."Running from 10:00 until 16:00 BST, it will also feature live music, boat races and cruises on the river.
"This festival embodies Bedford borough's commitment to bringing people together through shared passions," said Andrea Spice, Bedford Borough Council's Conservative portfolio holder for economic growth, planning and prosperity."From awe-inspiring kites to lovingly preserved vehicles, every element celebrates creativity and heritage."The two-day event will feature professional kite displays.
Mr Grubb said the classic car show had become a "festival of motoring"."We've been careful with what we've picked, we're very choosey, we want quality over quantity", he added. Elsewhere on the river will be the Sue Ryder Dragon Boat Race, which will see more than 20 crews battle it out on the water.
Follow Beds, Herts and Bucks news on BBC Sounds, Facebook, Instagram and X.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Scottish Sun
8 hours ago
- Scottish Sun
Scots teacher sacked after pupils found OnlyFans account says subscribers skyrocketed after scandal broke
She revealed hundreds of new fans have flocked to her X-rated page BOOMING & BUST Scots teacher sacked after pupils found OnlyFans account says subscribers skyrocketed after scandal broke A PHYSICS miss struck off for selling racy pictures insisted there are other Scots teachers on OnlyFans. Kirsty Buchan, 34, claimed parents would be 'surprised' by how many classroom staff are anonymously flogging naked snaps online. 2 Kirsty worked as a Physics teacher at Bannerman High School in Baillieston, Glasgow Credit: Facebook 2 She told how her 14-year-old son Nathan fully supports her Credit: Kirsty Buchan And she revealed hundreds of new fans have flocked to her X-rated page after she was removed from the teaching register by regulators on Monday. Mum Kirsty, of Coatbridge, said: 'I've noticed a boost in my subscribers, a couple hundred more. 'It's crazy. You'd be surprised at how many teachers are doing it. 'I'm only known because I've got the balls — or rather the boobs — to do what I do and own up to it. 'A lot of people do it with a mask on to remain anonymous. 'There's teachers doing OnlyFans just the same way there's teachers drinking and taking drugs.' Kirsty's sexy sideline was exposed in December 2022 when a link to her 'Jessica Jackrabbit' profile on the adult subscription site was shared with schoolkids. It led to complaints and her resignation from Bannerman High in Baillieston, Glasgow. Now the General Teaching Council for Scotland has ruled she 'used her profession as a selling tool' — while her old school was regarded as 'synonymous with having an OnlyFans teacher'. ONLY STARS ON IT AS WELL CELEBRITIES have also turned to Only Fans to boost their former Olympic skater Elise Christie, 34, set up an account after retiring. The Foundations singer Kate Nash, 37, posts pictures of her bottom to support touring costs. Singer and actress Lily Allen, 40, flogs photos of her feet and says it makes her more cash than Spotify. Kurts Adams Rozentals, 22, an Olympic hopeful canoeist, posts content to help with training costs. Kirsty today appeared on Good Morning Britain and revealed she is still backed by former pupils and teacher pals. Teacher and OnlyFans star fired after students discovered she filmed herself having sex in classroom speaks out She told presenter Susanna Reid: 'I've had messages from all my old colleagues, and all the school kids still support me to this day. I've still got that bond with them.' And she stressed son Nathan, 14, fully supports her work. She revealed: 'I asked him what he'd do if anyone he knew saw me naked and made a comment to him. He said he'd say, 'shut up or I'll hit you with my wallet'.' The GTCS said it did not comment on individual cases.
Scottish Sun
11 hours ago
- Scottish Sun
Fly-on-the wall reality show following very unlikely TV star and his family ends after just one series
Click to share on X/Twitter (Opens in new window) Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window) BEING TV's poshest ever reality show hasn't saved Meet The Rees-Moggs. I can reveal the fly-on-the-wall documentary featuring top Tory toff Jacob Rees-Mogg and his family, which launched with a blaze of publicity last year, has been axed and won't be returning for a second series on Discovery+. 6 Meet The Rees-Moggs won't be returning for a second series on Discovery+. Credit: PA 6 Jacob was seen in the show losing his seat at the General Election last July Credit: PA It is another setback for the former MP, who was seen in the show losing his seat at the General Election last July. A TV insider said: 'Although the critics seemed to lap up the ridiculousness of the show, it didn't quite get the response from audiences they had hoped for. 'Though it was easy to see how the series could run and run, the feeling among the execs was this should be a one-off capturing of a moment in time, namely the last general election.' Jacob felt that making the Keeping Up With The Kardashians-style show was a way to help 'get the Conservative message out there' while admitting it was a 'calculated risk'. But it doesn't seem to have paid off. When it aired last December, it followed him and his incredibly aristocratic wife, Helena, plus their six children — Mary, Peter, Thomas, Anselm, Alfred and Sixtus. The family provided a snapshot of their privileged and eccentric lives as well as charting the MP's bid to hold on to his seat in North East Somerset constituency. Discovery+ were approached for comment. JOHNNY ON ADHD AND ART JOHNNY VEGAS is back with a new documentary. The comedian, who took a break from his Channel 4 series Carry On Glamping after struggling with his ADHD, will head back to his hometown of St Helens in Merseyside to create a piece of artwork for public display. 6 Johnny Vegas will front new documentary Johnny Vegas: Art, ADHD And Me Credit: Rex His most personal project yet, Johnny Vegas: Art, ADHD And Me will follow him on a journey of self-discovery after his ADHD diagnosis in 2022. Johnny said: 'I used to sit at a potter's wheel on stage, and people thought it was a gimmick, but I actually started out as a dedicated wannabe ceramicist. "Art was my educational saviour. 'Over years of an ongoing decline in educational commitment to the very same arts, I felt it was time to kick-start a debate about culture in general, whilst giving something of a visual a symbol of gratitude back to my honestly beloved town.' The two-parter will be shown on Channel 4. SKY Max has confirmed that its rebooted version of panel show Never Mind The Buzzcocks will be returning for another series. Greg Davies will be back in the hot seat for the fifth season of the show, which previously aired on BBC Two from its launch in 1996 to 2015. LAUREN RETURNS AS TV TEC LAUREN LYLE will be getting her detective uniform back on as ITV cold case drama Karen Pirie returns. The actress, who plays DI Karen Pirie, will be joined by her loveable sidekick, DC Mint (Chris Jenks), and the romantically complicated DS Phil Parhatka, played by Zach Wyatt. 6 Karen Pirie is returning for a second series with Lauren Lyle Credit: Rex The story, based on the novel Darker Domain, follows the discovery of a man's body linked to the first series' spine-chilling kidnap of a young heiress and her baby son. The discovery will put Karen under closer scrutiny from her boss, the media and sinister forces linked to the crime which begin to come to light. It will air on ITV this summer. RUTH HAS WILL FOR NEW ROLE SHE waved goodbye to her role in Gavin and Stacey when the series ended last Christmas, but now Ruth Jones has her eyes set on a new character. The actress, who has just released her fourth book, hopes to have her latest novel turned into a TV series so she can play the leading lady. 6 Ruth Jones wants her latest novel turned into a TV series so she can play the leading lady Credit: Getty By Your Side features Linda Standish, a divorced, plus-sized Scots woman in her fifties working at the Unclaimed Heirs Unit, which traces family members of people who die without a will. And it follows her last case before retiring, involving Welshman Levi Norman. Revealing fans ask who she would cast as a character like Linda, Ruth said: 'I'm in my fifties, and I'm a plus-size woman, but admittedly I am not Scottish!' PANEL show Sorry, I Didn't Know has landed its sixth series on ITV. Jimmy Akingbola will be replaced by former Holby City actress Chizzy Akudolu – who will join team captains Eddie Kadi and Richard Blackwood. Filming will take place this summer. CYNTHIA'S LESSONS IN FAILURE AS Miranda Hobbes in Sex And The City, Cynthia Nixon has seen her character have no shortage of mishaps. But far from getting her down, the actress says she has learned a lot about how to deal with things going wrong. 6 Cynthia Nixon as Miranda Hobbes in And Just Like That... Credit: © Home Box Office, Inc. All rights reserved. HBO® and all related programs are the prope She told Elizabeth Day on the How To Fail podcast: 'Right from the get-go, we've seen Miranda fail at a lot of things – and that was the best thing to happen. 'She didn't actually fail at being a lawyer, I think she realised that her life quest to be on top of the corporate law world was a mistake. 'That's the wonderful thing about the show, it shows there's enough time to make a change. 'A lot of people identify with Miranda, and as years have passed, more of them identify with her. I love her.' Series three of spin-off And Just Like That . . . is available to stream now on Sky. Unlock even more award-winning articles as The Sun launches brand new membership programme - Sun Club.
New Statesman
12 hours ago
- New Statesman
Kemi Badenoch sinks further into the mire
Illustration by André Carrilho 'Here for the funeral?' asked the man in the seat next to me. Short, stout, bearded, behatted, pot-bellied: he looked just like a garden gnome. We were in the Duchess Theatre, Covent Garden, home of the pre-theatre set menu, luvvie-land. What the gnome called 'the funeral' – and what we might call the 'oooooffft, not again' or the 'should she really have that job?' or the 'why does she keep doing this to herself?' – belonged to Kemi Badenoch, for now the leader of His Majesty's opposition. The gnome, a retired civil servant, had come in search of Schadenfreude. He was here all the way from Eastbourne, gleeful and triumphant, to watch Badenoch on stage in conversation with the comedian Matt Forde. The live talk would be recorded for Forde's popular podcast The Political Party. 'It's a slow-motion car crash,' said Gnome, widely smiling, before Badenoch had even appeared. Car crash, funeral, whatever. If you want to understand British politics, know that there are men out there who not only look like a Renaissance woodcut of a mythical mountain-dwelling creature but who will travel one hour and 35 minutes on Southern Rail to watch a politician they hate exchange sensible on stage banter out of pure spite. In Britain, complicated forms of bitterness and political despair play out through evening attendance as light entertainment. I suppose it's better than the way these things resolve themselves in Myanmar. The tickets for Forde-Badenoch cost £26.50: a price Gnome was happy to pay. A flannel-and-cardigan audience settled into their seats around us. What was Badenoch doing with Forde? It was a deep mystery, much like the continued existence of Emmerdale. Was she doing outreach a few doors down from the Royal Ballet? Are there many votes left for Conservative leaders in the bullseye centre of liberal London, or did one of her aides book her in for the sweet comic grilling months ago, when the Tories weren't finishing fourth in Scottish by-elections on an apocalyptic 6 per cent of the vote? The move showed ambition, which Badenoch can never be accused of lacking. For every two voters the Conservatives are at risk of losing to Labour or the Liberal Democrats, one exhausted Tory flack told me this week, they haemorrhage five or six to Reform. Badenoch could turn the tide against Nigel Farage right here in the Duchess by talking about herself for 45 minutes in front of an audience of Lib Dems. Before anything happened, Gnome began a rambling and dirty joke about Nicholas Soames, who I am required by law to tell you is Winston Churchill's grandson. I think Gnome may just have hated Conservative politicians. He said the joke was Forde's, although I have in the past heard it attributed to Sarah Sands, the former editor of the Today programme. Forde appeared in a shiny blue suit buttoned at the waist, set off by box-fresh white Air Jordans. He was amusing, although his gags appeared to have been printed out on A4 paper and stuck to a box at the front of the stage. Alan Lockey, the Prime Minister's speechwriter, took an indirect pasting. 'Keir Starmer has a weird way with words,' Forde began, before entering a passably nasal Starmer impression: 'I know what it's like to work in a factory… because my dad did it.' Not quite the same thing, is it, as Forde quickly pointed out – you can try this yourself. Pick your most benighted dead relative. 'I know what it's like to get blown up at the Somme… because my great-grandfather did it.' Convincing? Subscribe to The New Statesman today from only £8.99 per month Subscribe I was growing impatient for Badenoch. Understatement induces me to say that her leadership has not gone very well so far. Consider a recent defence of Ukraine that she made on one of the Sunday shows: within hours it was clipped, trussed up, lipsticked and used by the Russian embassy for their own propaganda purposes. As a parable, it's pure Badenoch. She wants to do one thing. The opposite happens. The disintegration has since accelerated. A few days previously Badenoch had given a big speech on the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR). Imagine you are a right-wing politician fighting off an even more right-wing insurgency that draws all of its energy from promising mass asylum deportations, strong borders, the full Children of Men barbed-wire-and-police-dogs scenario. Would you then promise to leave the ECHR, which effectively stops the government from doing any of that? You might think Badenoch would have made this promise by now. But in that speech Badenoch effectively said she was going to send a consumer complaint email to the court in Strasbourg with her intention to announce a recommendation she had been advised to consider by someone else about the possibility of maybe, after taking some time to come up with a plan, perhaps or perhaps not leaving the ECHR. Strong stuff. Cask-strength. The speech may keep One Nation Tories happy in the parliamentary Conservative Party while opening a vast steppe for Nigel Farage to graze on. After the speech, Badenoch told the BBC she was going to improve: 'You don't want people to be the very best they're going to be on day one. You want people who are going to get better.' Picture Tony Blair saying that. Or Margaret Thatcher. To the extent that anything can get better when you are facing the possibility of being leapfrogged in the polls by the Green Party, Badenoch did improve once she settled, in a gold sleeveless blouse and long black skirt, into a low chair opposite Forde. For one thing, Gnome immediately fell asleep once she began talking. His head drooped first, then his chin settled on his belly. He breathed gently through his round, red nose. Badenoch has been known to induce a similar effect when she posts short-form video content on X, or speaks at Prime Minister's Questions. What's it like being leader of the opposition, Forde asked. Fascinating, Badenoch said, in a posh, slightly hoarse voice. She compared leading the Tories to Game of Thrones, a show in which most characters she might be compared to are murdered by nasty and treacherous methods. She said she'd received advice from past Tory leaders but not Liz Truss, whom she claimed might have lost Badenoch's phone number. 'But she's so good with numbers,' quipped Forde. To laughter, Badenoch poked Forde: 'Do an impression of me.' He mouthed the air before refusing. We were here to see the nice man who wrote Politically Homeless, not Jim Davidson. Badenoch condemned nationalisation, a Fabian idea Nigel Farage has taken a spooky interest in recently. 'Who would want a politician running a business?' Badenoch asked the now-silent audience, raising the uncomfortable question: who would want this Conservative Party running anything? They're not a party right now. They're a bag of snakes. Badenoch was right about Game of Thrones. Some of the material being shopped around to undermine her in Westminster is truly Targaryen in its uncompromising brutality. Leaks that make you shudder at the possibilities of human betrayal, even when the stakes are low: taking over the leadership of Britain's third most- popular political party. 'I've chosen a very, very difficult path,' said Kemi Badenoch as the funeral ended. Gnome slept on soundly. Forde grinned. She wasn't being funny. [See also: Laughing at the populist right is not a political strategy] Related
