Guests and Workshops

The Festival is on Saturday 7th July 2018 at Didcot Girls' School. 

Opens at 10.00, starts at 10.30, ends at 5.00

Stories

Listen to world-renowned storytellers: Geraldine McCaughrean, Daniel Lupton and Hugh Morden and Caroline Lawrence. 

Caroline Lawrence
Caroline Lawrence is best known for her Roman Mysteries series but has also written the Roman Mystery Scrolls and the Roman Quests as well as some short stories and the P.K.Pinkerton series. She has sold more than one million books!

Caroline wielding her secret weapon: a sponge bottom wiper!

Geraldine McCaughrean
Geraldine McCaughrean has written around 160 books for adults and children. As well as rewriting myths, including the oldest known story in the world, the Epic of Gilgamesh, she has retold The Odyssey, Roman Myths and written a sequel to Peter Pan - Peter Pan in Scarlet. Geraldine has also written for adults, including 60 plays and is such a great writer she has won all of these awards. 

Geraldine McCaughrean has written over 160 books for adults and children.

Hugh Lupton & Daniel Morden 
This terrific duo of renowned storytellers also retell myths, including ancient Greek ones. 
You can see Daniel Modern telling a story here.

You can listen to The Adventures of Achilles here

Make

Come and do a mosaic workshop with Lawrence Payne. See his work here. 

Lawrence has also kindly made a donation to our raffle and provided some designs for our younger guests to colour in. 

The T Birds, Upton's branch of the Women's Institute, will be providing some weaving activities. If you like this, you might like to see the Ure Museum's spindles - and maybe you'd like to buy a raffle ticket and win our a donated crocheted Roman soldier. 


Cakes!
Take part in a Greek and Roman themed cake decorating competition, judged by Didcot's own GBBO semi-finalist Christine Wallace. 

Art
We have the pleasure of the company of the amazing Panoply Vase Animation Project. Find animations here. 

We are fortunate in having the Enchanted Players Theatre Company playing The Charming Myth of Eros and Psyche. 
Please note that the cost of the play is not included in the ticket. You will need to buy a separate ticket for this performance.Tickets are £5.00

Roman Blacksmithing
Thomas Timbrell is a historical blacksmith. When you've seen the Roman soldier you might like to see Thomas' sword. 

Soldiers

Balearic Slinger of the Roman Army, David Hawkins
Listen to a Balearic slinger of the Roman Army talk about the history of this ancient weapon, and learn about the techniques ancient skirmishers used which made this weapon so effective and deadly. Test your slinging technique against our very own Goliath!


Roman soldier
Please check back. There will certainly be a soldier - and more!

The Aldershot Outreach team from the British Army
Try some ary rations - choose from vegetarian, halal and kosher food. Take part in team activities and take a look at some weapons seized from terrorists - securely bolted down! 


Archaeology
Our festival isn't only for story lovers! We have an entire section devoted to digging up the debris and treasures of the past. 

Anni Byard
Anni is Oxfordshire's Finds Liaison for the Portable Antiquities Scheme. She is an ex DGS girl and lives locally. You will see her name in museums in Oxfordshire and West Berkshire. She is often on local radio and has been on national tv. 
Anni will be giving a 40-minute talk on Roman finds found by the public in Oxfordshire. We hope she can bring her book '50 Finds From Oxfordshire'. 

We also have the Ure Museum's education team attending, from the University of Reading.

The Young Archaeologists' Club (Reading), run by Claudina Romero Mayorga, will be with us, encouraging the archaeologists of the future. 

                                             

Oxford Archaeology uncovered artefacts from the Great Western Park estate in Didcot, carrying out excavations over several years. They will be bringing along some of these finds for you to see. 

                            

We are sorry to have to say that, sadly, the Ashmolean Museum has had to pull out. We hope to be able to welcome them to future events. 
However, Berkshire Archaeological Research Group (BARG) has stepped into the Ashmolean Museum's place and will be along to talk about the excavation of the Boxford Bellerophon Mosaic, which you can read about here. Why not make a mosaic with Lawrence afterwards? 

Talks

If music is your thing, come and listen to James Lloyd talk about ancient Greek music. He might even play us some! James is a PhD candidate at the University of Reading. 

James Lloyd playing his aulos  playing at the Villa Vergiliana at Cumae

And here is James being interviewed:

Marchella Ward from the Classics outreach dept from the University of Oxford will be talking about Ovid and Shakespeare. 

To be confirmed...
A STEM ambassador. We hope that they will be able to talk about what science, maths and engineering were known to the ancient Greeks and Romans. 

Find entertainments for younger visitors here.