Hi there.
Today I’m going to talk about ‘nice things to do in Britain in the summer
months’ - this is some very British culture for you and some great
English language listening practice.
What we call ‘quintessentially British stuff’.
There is a whole calendar of sporting and other events that people enjoy
attending in the UK the summer.
Tickets are expensive - and for some things - almost impossible for ‘mere
mortals’ - that means ‘ordinary human beings’ - to get hold of!
If you’re very ‘monied’ and fortunate - it’s a whole season of entertainment.
But for most of us - we’re selective.
You might choose one or two nice events to go to in the summer,
depending upon your interests.
So today, a flavour, a list of what’s on to enjoy in the summer in Britain!
So this will give you lots of practice at dates and other useful vocabulary.
And you’ll know what people are talking about, when they’re telling
you what they did with their summer.
Stick with this podcast until the end to find out what my favourites are!
Let’s group these events together, according to interest.
I’ll give you the 2023 dates - but most of these occur every year
around the same sort of time.
So if you’re planning a trip to the UK, you might take in one of these events!
Before we embark on that ‘British cultural tour’, let me just remind you
that we have hundreds more podcasts for English language learners, just
like this one, on all sorts of topics - on our website at adeptenglish.com
or you can catch us on YouTube, Spotify, lots of different places.
Hello, I’m Hilary, and you’re listening to Adept English.
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First of all, musical events.
So I mentioned Glastonbury in my last podcast.
That was 21st to 25th June this year and if you would like the
whole ‘music festival experience’ with something of a genteel family
vibe, then you’ll like Glastonbury.
There is some tolerance to soft drug use - but it’s more an opportunity
to wear flowers in your hair and to camp in a field with your friends.
Perhaps the nearest you get to Peace, Love and a ‘Woodstock’ type feel in 2023!
This year’s line-up at Glastonbury included the Arctic Monkeys, Guns
n Roses, Cat Stevens or Yusuf Islam as he prefers to be known.
But Glastonbury is as much about the whole experience as anything else.
Tickets for the several days it’s on are not cheap - so many people make
it one of their summer holidays.
And there are plenty other music festivals to go to, in the summer in the UK.
Latitude, Creamfields, Reading Festival - always at the end of August.
If you’re musical taste is quite different, there’s always Glyndebourne,
which runs 19th May to 27th August and this is opera, OPERA.
Quite a posh event this one, situated in the gardens of an English country
house - called ‘Glyndebourne’, that’s GLYNDEBOURNE - and it’s in
East Sussex on the south coast.
Or what about ‘The Proms’ 14th July to 9th September - this is an eight-week
summer season of daily orchestral or classical music concerts and other events.
Held annually and taking place predominantly in the
Royal Albert Hall in London.
‘The ‘Last Night of the Proms’ is usually televised and shows lots of
people crazily dancing to classical music - which you don’t see that often!
They play classic nationalistic British music, such as ‘Rule, Britannia!’,
Edward Elgar’s ‘Land of Hope and Glory’, ‘Jerusalem’, the National Anthem of
Great Britain and ‘Auld Lang Syne’.
Quite moving some of it - it’s certainly music that people in Britain know.
What about ‘literary’ events?
If you like ‘literary’ events - that’s LITERARY, meaning ‘to do with
books’, maybe you’d enjoy The Hay Festival, 25th May to 4th June.
It happens in Hay-on-Wye in Wales.
A bit like Glastonbury, it’s in a field with tents and marquees - that’s
MARQUEE and it means ‘a big tent in a field, a tent for an event’.
And there are pop-up shops and pop-up cafés.
Here you can buy books and meet the authors, attend talks and discussions.
The Canadian author Margaret Atwood was at Hay-on-Wye Festival this year.
‘Horsey events’ - by that , I mean ‘events with horses’, HORSES.
These are the ones which Queen Elizabeth - and her mother enjoyed so much!.
There’s the Windsor Horse Show 11th to 14th May - it’s in the name - it’s
in Windsor and is all about horses.
Close friends of mine with ‘horsey interests’ went to that this year.
And if you like horse racing, RACING then the pinnacle of the year is Ascot week.
20th to 24th June.
Also called ‘Royal Ascot’.
You’ll need to dress up if you attend that one.
Women are expected to wear hats or ‘fascinators’ - that means
a silly feathery thing in your hair, especially on ‘Ladies Day’.
So it’s opportunity to wear a fancy hat and drink champagne
and have a flutter, that’s FLUTTER - meaning ‘a bet’ on a horse.
Ascot is a small town in Berkshire - about 15 minutes
down the road from where I live.
Locals know to avoid the area during Ascot week - traffic is a nightmare!
What about ‘flowery events’?
Much more ‘up my street’ or much more ‘my cup of tea’, as we say
in English - Flowery Events.
So there’s the Chelsea Flower Show, 23rd to 27th May, which happens of
course, in Chelsea in London - in the grounds of the ‘Royal Hospital’,
Chelsea, where you see the old ‘Chelsea Pensioners’ in their uniforms.
That’s where they live.
I love the Chelsea Flower Show - there are great garden displays, great
plant shopping opportunities as well.
Especially later in the day, on the last day, when they ‘dismantle’
the stalls - that’s DISMANTLE.
They ‘ake down the displays and sell off the plants.
But Chelsea is quite a small site, so it gets quite packed
with people and very busy
Of the two, I probably prefer the next one, which is the Hampton Court
Flower Show, 4th to 9th July and this one set in the grounds of King
Henry VIII’s Hampton Court Palace.
It’s slightly later in the year than Chelsea - so different
plants are in season - and these show gardens are fantastic.
Like at the Chelsea Flower Show, you might catch a glimpse
of your favourite gardening celebrity - off Gardener’s World.
Monty Donn, Adam Frost, Carol Klein - they’re all there, in the flesh!
I love a good flower show!
Fancy sailing your yacht?
If you’re a really fortunate person, you might be into sailing - that’s
from the verb ‘to sail’, SAIL.
Years ago, I did get my ‘Competent Crew’ qualification in sailing, but
I’ve forgotten it all now and it’s not something I’ve done recently.
But if sailing a yacht is your thing - that’s ‘yacht’, YACHT a difficult word
in English - but maybe Cowes Week, 29th July to 4th August is for you!
Cowes, COWES is the main town on the Isle of Wight.
And that’s the island right at the bottom of England, just
off the coast near Portsmouth.
And that’s an area of water known as ‘The Solent’.
I’ve stayed on a yacht in Cowes overnight - very nice pubs and restaurants there!
Tennis Events.
What about some sport?
If you like tennis, then Wimbledon this year is 3rd to 16th
July - so that’s on currently.
I’ve never been - and it’s one of those events, where the locals simply move
out of the area, possibly renting out their houses for an astronomical sum!
But if you can get tickets, Wimbledon is quite an exciting one.
And there’s a tradition too, where people watch on a big screen outside the ‘All
English Tennis Club’ where Wimbledon is held, on a hill nicknamed ‘Henman Hill’
- after British tennis player, Tim Henman.
A favourite event of the royals - who sit in their ‘Royal Box’.
And ‘Strawberries and Cream’ are associated with Wimbledon, but
don’t ask me how much they cost!
Motor Racing events.
Maybe Motor Racing is your thing?
Well there’s The British Grand Prix, Formula 1 or ‘F1’.
This happens at Silverstone - 7th to 9th July - I pass Silverstone on the M40, when
I’m heading north sometimes - you become aware that there’s a motor racing event on
- the services are full of ‘petrol heads’!
That’s an affectionate nickname for these motor racing enthusiasts.
Tickets for Formula 1 are notoriously expensive!
Cricket events - that’s CRICKET?
Well, there’s The Ashes - test cricket series, between England
and Australia - which happens at Edgbaston, The Oval in London,
Headingly - and maybe ‘Lords’ as well?
I don’t know.
There’s ‘Country Cricket’ - between the counties of the UK.
To be honest, cricket is so ‘not my thing’, my whole brain just shuts
down when I approach the subject of cricket - my brain rejects it!
There’s a phrase in English ‘I would rather watch paint dry’ - we say when
something is thoroughly boring to us!
And I’m sorry, but cricket is the thing which makes me say
’I’d rather watch paint dry’!
But if cricket is your thing, there’s lots to enjoy in Britain in the summer.
Comedy Events.
if you like comedy, then there’s the famous Edinburgh Festival, up in Scotland.
It’s also called ‘The Edinburgh Fringe’, FRINGE.
‘Fringe’ because originally, the comedy festival was ‘unofficial’,
‘renegade’ even and not part of the main Edinburgh Festival.
Now it’s the part that the festival that’s best known!
The Edinburgh Fringe runs on 4th to 28th August - and there are 190 comedy shows.
I think comedy is one of the things that we do best in the UK - that and
music perhaps are our great exports?
But you might disagree with me.
Last, but not least for me - you know I like gardens
and I also like an art gallery.
And my favourite is Royal Academy Summer Exhibition, 12th June to 20th August.
I like this art exhibition because it’s open to amateurs - literally anyone could
submit a painting to the exhibition.
Your work may not get it.
I’ve submitted a piece of artwork once - and it didn’t
get past the first judgement!
But it is a joy to see the artwork of many ordinary people displayed
in a central London gallery space near Piccadilly Circus!
The Royal Academy Exhibition is my favourite - and by the time you hear this
podcast, I will have been to this year’s.
But there are plenty of other art exhibitions on in London each year.
This year, I’ve already been to the Cezanne at the Tate
Gallery and the pre-Raphaelites exhibition at Tate Britain.
So that’s me - art and gardening.
And probably I would quite like to go to Glastonbury one year too, as I never have!
What’s the thing out of that list that you would enjoy?
What are your interests?
Let us know.
And let us know what you think of this podcast.
I hope you find this ‘introduction to a part of British culture’
useful and interesting.
Enough for now.
Have a lovely day.
Speak to you again soon.
Goodbye.
Thank you so much for listening.
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