Issue #21 | Wednesday 15 July 2026

Good morning, Mendips! The Glastonbury Symposium marks its 36th year at the Town Hall from 24 to 26 July, and with advance booking needed for some sessions, today's the day to start planning. Closer to home, Queen by Candlelight lights up Wells Cathedral on Thursday, the Godney Gathering and Westlife by Candlelight follow on Friday, and the Wells Tortoise and Hare Run rounds out the weekend. Cheddar Gorge has also been named among the UK's most iconic views, and Shepton Mallet's fire station is in line for a serious upgrade.

🔮 Glastonbury Symposium - Today’s featured event
Glastonbury's creative recycling hub
📅 What's On This Week — across the Mendips
🚒 Shepton Mallet fire station set for major upgrade
🏞️ Cheddar Gorge named among UK's top 20 views
🏍️ Wells Tortoise and Hare Run gears up for 15th charity ride
🌡️ Weather — Wells BA5 forecast

Glastonbury Town Hall hosts the 36th Glastonbury Symposium from Friday 24 to Sunday 26 July, one of Britain's longest-running 'alternative' conferences. What began in 1990 as a small gathering to debate crop circles has grown into a three-day programme of talks under the banner "Expand Your Horizons," covering everything from ancient mysteries and earth energies to consciousness research, UFOs and new science.

This year's line-up runs to 18 speakers over the weekend, including Society for Psychical Research researcher Professor Chris Roe, UFO investigator Dave Hodrien, astrologer Lianne McCafferty and archaeoacoustics researcher Greg Moffitt, with author John Siddique closing the event with a special Sunday evening talk. Each day also includes a communal meditation, with Sunday's session held outdoors in the grounds of Glastonbury Abbey.

Day tickets, weekend passes and live-streaming options are all on sale now via the Symposium's own booking page — some sessions have limited capacity, so it's worth sorting tickets well before the last week of July rather than turning up on the day.

→ Book tickets at glastonburysymposium.co.uk

Tucked away at Unit 7 Dyehouse Lane, Yeast Scrapstore takes what would otherwise be landfill — offcuts, packaging, fabric, all sorts — and turns it into raw material for creativity. Their mission is simple: rescue reusable "scrap" from local businesses, sell it on cheaply, and get families, schools and community groups making things with it instead of buying new.

There's a busy summer ahead. On Monday 20 July, 3.30–5.30pm, they're throwing a Scrapstore Rainbow Day — the Art Room fills with a rainbow of reclaimed materials for building, collaging and decorating, with kids invited to make something rainbow-themed to take home or design their own Pride flag or banner. No need to book, all ages welcome, donations from £5 per family.

From 27 July through 24 August, every Monday 11am–1pm brings Summer Stay and Make, a relaxed drop-in craft session using recycled materials, recommended for ages 3–12 (siblings welcome).

And every Thursday in August at 11am, Yeast Scrapstore teams up with Rainbow Roots CIC for Stories, Myths & Magic — weekly storytelling and craft sessions for children, £10 per child, blending tales, myths and a take-home craft.

Across all their sessions, parents or guardians need to stay, and donations (card or cash) help keep the scrapstore running. It's exactly the kind of quietly brilliant local resource worth knowing about — cheap, creative, and doing genuine good for the planet while it's at it.

📍 Unit 7 Dyehouse Lane, Glastonbury, BA6 9LZ · yeastscrapstore.co.uk

→ Full listings and booking at Wells Film Centre

Shepton Mallet's Board Cross fire station could get a top-to-bottom refit after plans were submitted to modernise the building, in continuous use since 1960. The scheme adds solar panels and a new roof, upgrades rest and sanitary facilities for crews, and swaps the ageing PVC curtain wall for aluminium. Somerset Council will decide on the application in due course.

Read full story → (Shepton Mallet Nub News)

Cheddar Gorge has landed at number seven in a new Samsung survey of Britain's most iconic views, sitting alongside Big Ben, Tower Bridge and the Giant's Causeway. It's the only Somerset entry on the list, beating Dorset's Durdle Door for local bragging rights, in research that found nearly half of Brits have travelled somewhere purely because they'd seen photos of it online.

Read full story → (Somerset Leveller)

Wells Classic Motorcycle Club's Tortoise and Hare Run marks its 15th year on 18 and 19 July, with riders setting off from Wells Rugby Club in aid of the Dorset and Somerset Air Ambulance and the Freewheelers blood bike volunteers. The weekend ride is one of the city's longest-running charity motorcycle events, and organisers are hoping for a bumper turnout this year.

Read full story → (Wells Classic Motorcycle Club)

🌡️ Wells BA5 Weather — Week of 15 July 2026

It's shaping up to be a proper scorcher — sunny and breezy right through the week, with highs around 28-29°C Wednesday to Friday easing to a still-warm 26-27°C for the weekend. Wednesday night could bring an odd thundery shower, but otherwise it's staying dry, hazy and hot across the Mendips.

→ Full 7-day forecast on BBC Weather

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