The Secret Garden Party 2008

The dates for 2008 are confirmed as Thursday 24th to Sunday 27th July.

Set in 10 acre landscaped garden, bordering a river and lake, The Secret Garden is a garden-party-gone-crazy. Expect human tetris and binocular football championships; magical mystery tours; silent discos; talks by ex MI5 intelligence officers; romantic boat rides; glow in the dark scavenger hunts; the notorious, secret 'Big Burn'; and breakfast in bed.

This July The Secret Garden Party will be exploring the Revolutions of Past, Present and Future, from the physical through to the conceptual. They are asking all Gardeners to stage their own revolutions, devolutions and evolutions bringing the Garden to life with with parades, music, performance, sculpture, installations, happenings, and theatre.

The first headliner has been announced as Grace Jones, and joining her will be Sons & Daughters, Glasvegas, Envy & Other Sins, Alphabeat, Morcheeba, Little Ones, Florence & The Machine, Infadels, Cage The Elephant, Officer Kicks, Married To The Sea, Elle S'appelle, Atomic Hooligan, 'Special Secret Guests', and more. For the line-up details as available please click here.

Tickets are on sale, priced at £125 for the four days, with the price including all booking and postage fees, parking, camping or live-in vehicles - click here to buy.

2008 will also see a rare performance from RSC director Tim Carroll’s Hamlet, which will be performed by a cast whose performances will be determined by the audience itself and with the only props being used provided by the crowd. This year the Kids Camp is going to be one of the stars of the show, staging fashion shows and parades, holding workshops of mask making and pizza baking, starting the day with vintage picnicking and finishing the day with discos and story telling.

Boutique Camping has been relocated to new parkland, part of a beautiful flower meadow offering yurts, tipis, podpads and more.

The Idler magazine is to host its very own Grove: a debating space and medieval garden. Appearing over the weekend will be Idler editor Tom hodgkinson, Crass co-founder, poet, essayist and artist Penny Rimbaud, New Economics Foundation director Andrew Simms, NEF associate and medievalist David Boyle, QI writer John Mitchinson, authors Dan Kieran and Jay Griffiths, brand-burner Neil Boorman, plus poet and playwright Clare Pollard, and historian John Nicholson.

New for this year is the arts circus, and The Gateway which will bring eastern philosophy and lifestyles to the individual and collective through music, arts, dance, crafts, discussion and debate. The Sanctuary will be based within The Gateway, and will be a place of healing, therapy, treatments and relaxation.

In 2008 The Secret Garden Party will again be running a number of surreal & outrageous Action Camps. Come and be dressed up as a super hero, pimp your ride, play giant connect four, wrap your friends in bubble wrap, learn how to kiss, get to grips with the string theory, juggle fire and so much more.

The Feast of Fools Spectacular will feature Max Pashm Band, Circulus, Red Seal & Cheshire Cat, Los Albertos, Turning Green, Brown Star, Widescreen, Chicken Shed Zeppelin, The Hot Club of Belleville, Aluna, Jonathan Kay, Nomadic Academy of Fools, Suffolk Howlers, Daniel Herlakin, Carrie Tree, Dave Pepper, Pok Star, Duende Flamenco, Curiously Little, Ceilidh Crew, Tom Hodgkinson, and Xed le Head.

More information will be here when available.

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