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Tooleys dry dock is the unique location for ten days of music, comedy and theatre
28/09/2023
“this is the best music venue we’ve ever found – and it’s not a music venue, it’s a working boatyard!”
The 254-year-old dry dock at Tooley’s Boatyard is being opened up for ten days of music, theatre and comedy from tomorrow (Friday).
The boatyard will be a key focus of this weekend’s Canal Festival and it was last year’s festival that gave the inspiration for this year’s event.
Anna Crockatt and her partner Richard attended the Festival last year.
Anna said: “We completely fell in love with Tooley’s Boatyard last year. For anyone who knows about narrowboats, Tooley’s Boatyard is a really special place for the history of canal boating – leisure boating started there.
“We were invited to take part in the historic Canal festival last year, and we hadn’t been inside Tooley’s Boatyard before. We watched the Three Idle Women playing their gig and thought – this is the best music venue we’ve ever found – and it’s not a music venue, it’s a working boatyard!”
It was agreed with Tooley’s that Anna and Richard would run a longer event in the dry dock to coincide with the 2023 Canal Festival. Now, they are all set for the unique venue to play host to a number of genres of music, stories, comedy and a quiz over ten days.
Anna and Richard live on a narrowboat themselves and have sailed into Banbury for the event.
Anna said: “We run the UK’s only floating solar powered music venue – called the Village Butty. We’re on a never-ending tour of everywhere, increasing the overall jollity of the nation!”
Tickets for all the shows can be purchased online. Anna gave us an overview of what’s on offer:
Published: by Banbury FM Newsteam