Wansteadium

Tickets are now on sale for the second St Mary’s Music Festival after last year’s debut. Three concerts are taking place on the next bank holiday weekend, 25-27th May, at the magnificent church on Overton Drive.

The festival features local saxophonist Melanie Henry with the Opus Sax quartet and an afternoon celebrating the church organ, which is now 101 years old. It concludes with All Rest, a new immersive operatic work written by local composer Simone Spagnolo which will be performed as the audience walks around the churchyard.

Full details are below, and tickets are available here on Wansteadium.

Festival organiser Alison Wells writes:

“Last year’s inaugural St Mary’s Music Festival was a great success and a lot of fun!  The emphasis this year is still on local talent – performers, and composers.  Watch out for the organ day, Sunday 26th, this year featuring a talk on organists of Wanstead Parish Past and present.  And the itinerant site-specific All Rest by local composer Simone Spagnolo, who will be known to many of you. That’s on Bank Holiday Monday 27th.

We pray for good weather as the audience will be promenading around the churchyard, meeting some interesting characters from the past. And it all kicks off on Saturday 25th with a fantastic evening of Saxophone quintets and quartets, curated and presented by Wanstead’s own Melanie Henry with students from Trinity Laban Conservatoire.  Really looking forward to seeing lots of you at our beautiful church over the weekend.”

Earlier this week Redbridge warned about people scamming money from holders of blue badge disabled parking permits, hanging around in council car parks and getting money from them.

Wansteadium reader Andy writes that the Grove Park car park is indeed one of their targets.

My parents-in-law were scammed in Grove Park last year – guy hanging around in the rain offered to “help” them with the ticket machine, palmed their card and withdrew £500 from high street ATM. Clearly a well-rehearsed little routine. Be extra vigilant and offer to help get friends/relatives setup on the app (assuming they’re able to use it!).

Redbridge Council has warned Blue Badge holders – people with disabilities who are entitled to free parking – not to be conned by people demanding payment in Redbridge car parks.

In a statement Redbridge said:

The Council believes that individuals may be posing as Parking Enforcement Officers in some of the borough’s car parks. These impostors falsely claim to be council employees and convince Blue Badge holders to hand over money for parking.

It’s important to remember that Blue Badge holders do not need to pay to park in Redbridge Council operated car parks. Unfortunately, recently fraudsters have persuaded people to enter their bank cards into out of service parking machine, only to be told the machine had swallowed their card and the only way to retrieve it was to enter their PIN. 

During one of the recent incidents, a man had £250 debited from his bank account.

People should be extra vigilant if approached by someone who claims to be a Parking Enforcement Officer and offers help with card payments. Council Parking Enforcement Officers will be happy to show photographic ID to prove they are genuine and will never ask you for your pin number.

Please report any incidents of this nature via the Met Police, Action Fraud and Redbridge Council’s Corporate Fraud Team on 0800 633 5267.

There may be quizzical looks from staff at the Odeon in South Woodford on Thursday at an unusual level of interest in a showing of Macbeth.

The production, starring Ralph Fiennes, also features former Wanstead High student Lola Shalam as one of the witches. And besides the local interest, it’s a timely showing with GCSE Eng Lit exams just days away (Macbeth being one of the set texts for many…)

Lola graduated from Guildhall School of Music and Drama last year, and has featured in roles at the Almeida as well as this production of Macbeth which was highly acclaimed, earning four stars from the Financial Times.

The delayed decision on the future of the Evergreen Field has been put back again, after a series of revisions and delays to the process. It had been expected that council officers would give a verdict by the end of April.

But a spokesperson for Redbridge Council said: “The application is currently being considered by council officers and it is anticipated that the application will be referred to the Council’s Planning Committee for a decision no later than July.”

Look out for an advert featuring a Skoda apparently staring meaningfully into Heronry Pond. Filming captured by regular correspondent JW.