THE 10th anniversary Stogursey Arts Festival (SAF) kicks off on Monday (September 23) with the unveiling of a village photographic exhibition in the Jubilee Rooms, Castle Street.
The formal opening takes place at 7pm for villagers to attend and see photographs which will help to form a permanent record of life past and present in Stogursey and the surrounding area.
Stogursey Arts Photographic Society (SAPS) has also built a website where the images in its archive can be viewed online.
The festival, which runs until Sunday, September 29, is expected to boost visitors to Stogursey at the same time as the Somerset and Exmoor Coast Festival is taking place and the Open Artist Studios as part of Somerset Art Weeks.
Venues hosting events for each of the festivals will welcome donations in support of the Arts Trust.
Tuesday, sees the opening in St Andrew’s Church at 7 pm of the annual festival of flowers and exhibitions of arts, craft and sculpture, which is dedicated to the late arts enthusiast George Cassidy, who helped reintroduce SAF.
The church will then open daily until Sunday from 10am until 4pm and will also host live and recorded music at various times throughout the week.
The exhibition will include a textile work by 20 members of Stogursey Artisans of a coastal landscape from Burnham-on-Sea lighthouse through to Minehead harbour, a festival of flowers and foliage depicting coast to countryside, and a display of costume sculptures from a recent fashion show titled 'The Void' and featuring mythical creatures which Stogursey Arts Trust has loaned from Somerset-based art collective HATCH.
Tree of Life panels from last year will also be on show in the church again.
Stogursey Arts Festival will hold a celebratory lunch with a special menu in the Jubilee Rooms at 12noon on Tuesday, and in the evening at 7.45pm there will be a pop-up choir in the Greyhound Inn.
On Wednesday, from 4pm to 6.30pm a ‘teacake and make’ event is being run in the Jubilee Rooms by several ceramics experts offering visitors an opportunity to make an item in clay while enjoying a cup of tea or other drink and cake.
In the evening the Strummers of Stogursey will present a ukulele taster session in The Greyhound, with ukuleles available for people to ‘have a go’.
Thursday sees the Soap Factory screening its annual festival film night in the Jubilee Rooms from 7pm, showing the light-hearted comedy 'Poster Boys', with the addition of some short, animated films made by local artists.
An American-style waffle brunch will be served in the Jubilee Rooms on Saturday from 10.30am to 12noon offering waffles with maple syrup and crispy bacon or fresh berries and whipped cream.
The village is also organising 'Light Up Stogursey' again this year with residents making sea monster sculptures for their gardens or front windows, and Christmas decorative lights arranged in a creative display, for people to enjoy when switched on at dusk.