Line up for arts festival revealed (From Gazette Series)

Line up revealed for the 2012 Thornbury Arts Festival

10:43am Wednesday 25th January 2012 in Thornbury news By Marion Sauvebois

COMEDY with a hint of gastronomy is hoped to make a winning recipe on opening night at Thornbury’s Arts Festival 2012.

Glaswegian comic and TV celebrity Hardeep Singh Kohli has been confirmed as this year’s third headliner and is due to kick off the festivities with his stand-up cum cookery seminar ‘The Nearly Naked Chef.‘ He will set down his cooking equipment at The Armstrong Hall on April 20 and transform the venue into a fully functioning kitchen space for an evening of food and fun.

Mr Kohli, who was runner-up on the first series of Celebrity Masterchef and has appeared on BBC’s The One Show and Channel 4’s Meet the Magoons, is a regular broadcaster for Radio 4.

He first introduced ‘The Nearly Naked Chef’ at Edinburgh Fringe Festival where he performed to sell-out audiences.

Thornbury Arts Festival artistic director Liz Wilkins told the Gazette the organising team had worked extremely hard to secure acts worthy of the 2011 line-up.

"Last year our list of celebrities was strong and popular so to find events to equal those of Jennie Eclair and Julian Lloyd Webber, the committee has had to search far and wide. We are so pleased and excited and this is just the start of the 2012 Festival." Mr Kohli is the third performer to have been announced so far.

He will be sharing the bill with no other than BAFTA-nominee Robert Powell and world-renowned percussionist Dame Evelyn Glennie, whose participation was revealed by organisers back in December.

Mr Powell, who rose to fame after his critically acclaimed performance as Christ in the mini-series Jesus of Nazareth, has also appeared in Hollywood blockbuster the Italian Job alongside Michael Kane and more recently in BBC’s Holby City.

In his Celebration of Charles Dickens, he will give homage to the Victorian author on his bicentenary, through an original portrayal of the funny, romantic, satirical and sometimes macabre characters found in his novels.

The first person in musical history to successfully achieve a virtuoso career as a solo percussionist, Dame Evelyn Glennie is also set to wow audiences at the Armstrong Hall on Saturday, April 21.

She added: "That's quite an impressive line-up and one designed to appeal to our usual wide discerning festival supporters."

More performers are due to be confirmed in the next few weeks.

To find out more about Thornbury Arts Festival visit thornburyartsfestival.com