News: Festivals headliners, and a space licence

Headline acts

Announcements are coming in thick and fast for next year’s entertainment headliners. Rock Oyster Festival (July 27 to 30, www.rockoysterfestival.co.uk) has revealed an impressive line-up, led by the epoch-spanning Nile Rodgers and CHIC, plus kitchen disco diva Sophie Ellis-Bextor and Gwenno, playing songs from her recent Mercury Prize-nominated Cornish language album Tresor. In the kitchen, you’ll find Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall, Andi Oliver and Rick Stein. Primal Scream take to the stage at the Great Estate in Scorrier (June 2 to 4, www.greatestatefestival.co.uk) while Lionel Richie is first out of the stalls for the Eden Sessions on June 7 (www.edensessions.com). At the Hall For Cornwall in Truro, comedian and Falmouth University Chancellor Dawn French has announced two shows on November 8 and 9, 2023 (www.hallforcornwall.co.uk). l Award-winning bridges Tintagel Castle’s footbridge has been named overall winner at The Royal Fine Art Commission Trust Building Beauty Awards 2022, celebrating the best of new architecture. The walkway spans a 190foot gorge and follows the line of the original historic entrance route – a narrow strip of land, long lost to erosion – between the 13th-century gatehouse on the mainland and the courtyard on the jagged headland, jutting into the sea. The structure also scooped the best Engineering Award. Judging panel chair Stephen Bayley praised the response to a challenging terrain and the weight of heritage and natural beauty, predicting it would be as much of a draw as the castle itself. “How best to complement the dramatic context? The answer is not timidity but the kind of boldness that suits the rough and raw Atlantic coast of Cornwall....” The footbridge will represent the UK in the World Architecture Festival’s International Building Beauty Prize in Lisbon on December 2. l

Nude knitters

Members of a Bodmin crochet and knitting group took the brave decision to bare all for a cheeky new fundraising calendar. The Knit and Natter group meet at Knit Happens to improve their crafting skills and socialise with likeminded people. The Knit Happens - Knit Natter and Nude Knit 2023 calendar features group members in tastefully posed shots with their modesty preserved by well-positioned balls of wool. All proceeds will be donated to Cornwall Air Ambulance and the Mermaid Centre at the Royal Cornwall Hospital. The calendars are on sale in-store at Knit Happens; in Cornwall Air Ambulance stores at Bodmin, St Austell, Camborne, Truro, Helston, Newquay and Wadebridge; and online at www.knit-happens.co.uk l

Intergalactic Cornwall

Spaceport Cornwall has been awarded the licence to host UK’s first space launch. The Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) announced that the site at Newquay Airport could be used for sending satellites into space. Cosmic Girl, a repurposed Virgin Atlantic Boeing 747 aircraft fitted with a rocket that will propel nine satellites into orbit, arrived at the spaceport on October 11 and had been waiting for the go-ahead. Meanwhile, Goonhilly Earth Station is the only tracking support in the UK for NASA's Artemis 1 Moon launch, receiving radio signals from the spacecraft which will travel up to 448,000 km away from Earth. l