Festival fun
Two festivals have confirmed dates for 2022. The Great Estate will take place in the grounds of Scorrier House from June 2 to 5, and has announced headline acts including Manic Street Preachers and rap superstars The Sugar Hill Gang. www.greatestatefestival.co.uk Rock Oyster, meanwhile, will run from July 29 to 31, with entertainment from the Happy Mondays, Laura Mvula, Passenger and Huey Morgan, and a food line-up curated by Jack Stein. www.rockoysterfestival.co.uk l
International Dark Sky Park designation for Penwith
The skies above West Penwith are now officially recognised with the prestigious International Dark Sky Park (IDSP) Designation, awarded by the International Dark-Sky Association (IDA). Recognised as an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty (AONB) since 1959, West Penwith is the second area in Cornwall (after Bodmin Moor) to become an IDSP. It stretches around the coastline from the outskirts of St Ives, through to St Just, Sennen and around Land’s End to Mousehole. Inland it takes in Trethewey, Sancreed and New Mill. This is now officially recognised as one of the best places in the world to view the beauty of the night sky, with minimal traces of light pollution. It is hoped the designation will encourage eco- and astrotourism, and raise awareness of the importance of a dark night sky for the environment and human wellbeing. l
New Year Honours
Cornwall saw four worthy recipients of MBEs in the 2022 New Year Honours: Malcolm Bell, chief executive of Visit Cornwall, for his dedication to tourism services across the South West especially during the pandemic; Pawlet Brookes of St Mawes, for three decades spent leading and progressing diverse arts and artists in the UK; Martyn Ward, an RNLI lifeguard supervisor and lifeboat volunteer who has dedicated over 40 years to lifesaving in north Cornwall; and Babs Rounsevell of CHAOS, for 40 years of tireless effort helping others in the community, including setting up Truro’s Community Fridge and the Food2Share scheme in partnership with local supermarkets. l
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Marazion bids for city status
The tiny town of Marazion, near Penzance, has applied for city status as part of a competition for the Queen's Platinum Jubilee celebrations. If granted, it will become the UK’s smallest and most southerly city, and Cornwall’s second after Truro. Dominated by the tidal island and castle of St Michael’s Mount, Marazion has about 1,500 residents but welcomes 400,000 British and international visitors each year. The Queen is due to confer city status on one or more towns this year to mark her 70-year reign, with the likes of Boston, Wrexham, Northampton, Crewe, Swindon, Dudley and Milton Keynes in the running. Dr Joanie Willett, from the University of Exeter’s Institute of Cornish Studies, said: “Given the disproportionate amount of policy time cities get compared to rural areas, this seems like a really good move. It also recognises that the area’s visitor economy sees a regular thoroughfare of hundreds of thousands of people, and asks us to question what we mean by population, and whether this can also come to mean transient populations.” l
| Volume 2 Issue 70 | February - March 2022
