Issue #17 | Friday 10 July 2026

Good morning, Mendips! It's a big one this weekend — WOWFest's flagship weekend fills Wells with young musicians from five countries, Priddy Folk Festival kicks off on the green, and there's a full "What Shall We Do For The Weekend?" round-up to help you plan it all. Plus: a familiar police car returns to Wells Market Place, and Shepton's firefighters are gunning for the police on the football pitch.

🎉 What Shall We Do For The Weekend? — from Friday afternoon to Sunday
📅 What's On This Week — across the Mendips
Street's Clarks Village Welcomes Home-Grown Talent as New Centre Director
Hot Fuzz Police Car Rolls Back Into Wells Market Place This Sunday
Firefighters to Take On Police in Wells Charity Football Showdown
WOWFest's Flagship Weekend Brings the World's Young Musicians to Wells
🌡️ Weather — Wells BA5 forecast

Big weekend ahead, Mendips — sunshine's holding, WOWFest's flagship concerts are in full swing, and there's folk, flea markets and festivals to fill every corner of the hills. Here's where to be.

Friday to Sunday, Priddy village green. Now a proper Mendip institution, this year's line-up is headed by Dervish, the Melrose Quartet and a 30-piece Brazilian youth orchestra, with seven stages, a Sunday procession and plenty of free entry alongside the ticketed programme. Bring cash for the food stalls and think about parking early — the lanes up to Priddy fill fast. → priddyfolk.org

— Saturday, 7pm, Wells Cathedral. The flagship concert of Wells Orchestral Weekend, with the WOWFest Community Chorus and Bristol Classical Players joined by young musicians from the Netherlands, Ireland, USA and Brazil for Orff's thundering choral classic. Hearing it fill the Cathedral is one of those proper Wells moments. → Full details and tickets

Friday and Saturday, Somerton Sports and Recreation Ground. Two days of indie, folk rock, country and reggae with The Beatles Dub Club and Rusty Shackle headlining, plus a kids' silent disco and on-site camping if you fancy making a weekend of it. Under-12s go free. → somerstock.co.uk

💃 SWTA: ELEVATE — Saturday and Sunday, Strode Theatre, Street. South West Theatre Arts' whole-school dance showcase brings the summer term to a close in style — always a warm, proud-parent kind of crowd. → strodetheatre.org.uk

🪑 Giant Flea Market — Sunday, Bath & West Showground, Shepton Mallet. Over 250 indoor and outdoor stalls of retro furniture, vintage clothing, books, toys and garden bits — go with a plan and you'll still come home with something you didn't plan for. → bathandwestshowground.com

— Sunday, 7pm, Cheese & Grain, Frome. Eliza Carthy pays tribute to her father's songbook in an intimate evening that fits neatly with the folk mood of the weekend, if you fancy venturing over towards Frome. → cheeseandgrain.com

However you spend it, get out and enjoy the sunshine while it lasts — have a brilliant weekend, Mendips!

Child tickets (ages 3–14) are down to £4.38 all summer as the cinema passes on the government's VAT cut, running until 1 September.

→ Full listings and booking at Wells Film Centre

Mike Jones has taken over as centre director at Clarks Village in Street, returning to his native Somerset after a retail career spanning Yeovil, the Middle East, India, Germany and the USA. He previously introduced M&S across the Middle East and led global roles for Adidas, and now aims to showcase the outlet village's rural setting and gardens to new audiences. Clarks Village opened in 1993 as the UK's first retail outlet and today hosts more than 90 brands.

Read full story → (Somerset Leveller)

The Sandford patrol car from cult film Hot Fuzz is returning to Wells for Wells Sunday Market on 12 July, giving fans the chance to snap photos with one of the film's most recognisable props. Much of the 2007 Simon Pegg and Nick Frost comedy was filmed in and around Wells, which stood in for the fictional town of Sandford, and the city remains a magnet for fans of the film. Organisers are encouraging visitors to come along, support the market and, given the forecast heat, bring a Cornetto!

Read full story → (Wells Nub News)

Firefighters from Wells, Glastonbury and Shepton Mallet will swap the station yard for the pitch on Saturday 18 July, taking on Avon and Somerset Police at Wells Football Club. The match will raise money for The Fire Fighters Charity and Miscarriage UK, with organisers hoping to draw supporters from across the area. Wells firefighter Ollie Garstang said the aim was to raise awareness of both charities while bringing the community together.

Read full story → (Shepton Mallet Nub News)

Wells becomes a stage for international youth music this weekend as WOWFest's main festival runs from 10 to 13 July, opening with a ceremony at Cedars Hall on Friday afternoon featuring the Irish Chamber Orchestra Youth and the USA's Leon Fleisher Academy. The festival's centrepiece comes on Saturday 11 July at 7pm, when Carl Orff's Carmina Burana fills Wells Cathedral, performed by the Bristol Classical Players and WOWFest Community Chorus alongside young musicians from the Netherlands, Ireland, USA and Brazil. Now in its fifth year, WOWFest was founded in 2018 under the patronage of conductor Charles Hazlewood to bring music and friendship to the streets of England's smallest city, with further concerts continuing through the weekend at St Cuthbert's, the Bishop's Palace and St Thomas' Church.

Read full story → (WOWFest)

🌡️ Wells BA5 Weather — Week of 10 July 2026

The heatwave rolls on for the weekend — expect wall-to-wall sunshine and highs around 30-33°C from Friday through Monday, with just the odd thundery shower possible on Saturday afternoon. It turns cooler and more unsettled by midweek, with thundery showers forecast for Wednesday and Thursday, so make the most of the sunshine while it's here.

→ Full 7-day forecast on BBC Weather

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