What's on in Rochester and Medway in 2012!

Happy New Year! 2012 will be a year of celebration in Medway and Rochester (whether we achieve city status or not) as apart from the usual fantastic festivals, more celebrations will take place to commemorate the bicentenary of Dickens' birth, the Queen's Diamond Jubilee, the Olympics Games and the bicentenary of the Royal Engineers residence in Medway.

There is a draft schedule in place, so grab your diaries, pull the calender you just stuck upon the wall down again, find a decent pen and get ready to plan your year!

On the weekend of January 21st/22nd, there's another chance to see in the New Year, as the local Chinese Association will be organising events and displays to celebrate the arrival of The Year of the Dragon, the mightiest of the 12 Chinese Zodiac signs!

In April, the Riverside Country Park in Rainham will again host the English Festival, when Saturday the 21st will see it transformed with medieval knights and damsels, seaside scenery and quite probably a bit of hog roasting for a jolly family day out to celebrate all things English.

The Rochester Sweeps Festival will this year take place over the bank holiday weekend, 5th, 6th and 7th May, when the high street will once again come alive with bells and music as the best Morris dancers treat us to a visual feast of colour and spectacle - and, if you're awake, the Jack in the Green Awakening will take place on the 1st of the month at Blue Bell Hill, usually around 5.30am! I may even brave it again ... *note to self: gloves*

The following weekend, 12th and 13th May, visit the Medway Flower Fair at Cozenton Park, Rainham, for a weekend of "floristic entertainment" in conjunction with Hadlow College. I managed to miss this last year and it really bugged me, so it's High Priority this time around!

June, I'm warning you now, is going to be manic! The Rochester Dickens Festival is scheduled for Friday 8th, Saturday 9th and Sunday 10th June - if you have no costume, watch out as there's usually a costume fair in the Corn Exchange a couple of weeks before (and our local antique and charity shops usually rustle up a few bustles from somewhere too!) From Monday the 11th, Lighting the Fuse will commence across Medway, building up to the Fuse Festival Weekend on 15th, 16th and 17th, one of the largest free art and performance festivals in the country - are you an artist or performer? It's not too late to apply!

Armed Forces Day is planned for Saturday 23rd June and we usually witness a major parade in Rochester as well as events at The Historic Dockyard, then on the 24th, a Family Fun Day will be held at Broomhill Park, Strood. A quick look at the "Friends of" site shows there's more going on there through out the year too, if you want to support one of your local open spaces.

Staying with friends of open spaces, The Vines Cherry Picnic will be held on Saturday 7th July, with the sale of the cherries and more usually generating a tidy sum for charity - over £2000 raised last year for MacMillan - so a worthy date to keep free. There are numerous other events held by Friends of the Vines in our city centre open space, but they warrant a separate article on their own, which I will begin shortly!

Moving into mid July and the Rochester Castle Concerts, taking place from Wednesday 18th July and culminating in Under Siege on Sunday 22nd. Jools Holland is back, as are the Proms and we await full details of who'll be joining them.  The following Wednesday, the 27th, is the Medway Mile, which I'm guessing even more people will be up for this year, since we'll be in full Olympic frenzy by then! 

Medieval Merriment will take place in Rochester Castle Gardens on the weekend of 1st and 2nd of September. It's another good excuse to dress up, but this time a few hundred years pre Dickens! Continuing with local heritage, the Will Adams Festival is on Saturday 15th at the Gillingam Memorial Park, then it's time to dig out the kite for the Capstone Festival on 23rd! 

The Great Lines Bonfire Night will this year be on Saturday 3rd November, while Remembrance Day actually falls on the Sunday 11th, so presumably there will only be the one day of services. We wind up with the Dickens Christmas Festival on 1st and 2nd December, but more details of those will follow nearer the time, along with the Dickens Market and Christmas Lights switch ons.  

There will be more, much more, going on throughout the year, so bookmark the What's On guide - and if you have any event you want to publicise, please fell free to post it on there, it's completely free and all you need to register is an email address! 

Enjoy all the New Year has to offer!