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A hand delivered copy of the Arts on 5 Spring programme up at The Lakeside (cheers, mystery mail person…) and woh – there’s quite a schedule of events to look forward to at Wivenhoe Park over the coming weeks.

I’m hopefully off to the press launch of the season later on in the week, and so much more detail will no doubt follow. But for now, here are some of the artistic highlights that leap out of the programme.

Nine Years on Thursday 3rd March is:

“The story of two friends who decided to see the world. By foot and on bicycle [hurrah!] they travelled Europe, Scandinavia, North America and Australia, offering theatrical presentations as gifts to the people they met.”

Cycling is notoriously tricky to represent on stage. A £9 ticket and a 7:30pm performance should satisfy your curiosity.

Music at The Lakeside comes from Skip ‘Little Axe’ McDonald (29th January,) John Law’s Opt Trio (12th February,) Joanna MacGregor and Adriano Adewale (5th March) and the West Africa Blues Project (12th March.)

Holocaust Memorial Week rightly takes up much of the Lakeside schedule fro 24th – 27th January.

Intimate Bureaucracies – Art and the Mail sounds like a fascinating exhibition, all about how art can be defined in transit:

“This exhibition investigates how artworks accumulate meaning while in transit. Intimate Bureaucracies explores the roots and development of mail art and the ways in which artists employ different methods of circulation to open up unexpected spaces in society and seek wider participation in their work.”

The exhibition runs from 25th February to 26th March. I have already encouraged the very good @lloyddavis to pay a visit, with many parallels from his current #journalraceuk project.

As already detailed, @wivmovingimage is continuing the Monday night run up at The Lakeside, with a challenging World War II theme for the spring. Tarantino’s Inglorious Basterds on the 17th January is a must see.

Comedy Central Live! continues. Headliners include Andrew O’Neil (22nd January,) Ivan Brackenbury [VERY VERY funny] (9th February,) JJ Whitehead (23rd February) and Junior Simpson (16th March.)

The student shows for this season feature Macbeth (22nd – 24th March) as well as the Annual Essex Dance Show (10th – 11th March.)

There is also a lovely schedule of events for children, including Peter and the Wolf puppet presentation (23rd January,) How the Koala Learnt to Hug (20th February) and Hug a Bug (27th February.)

We truly are blessed in Wivenhoe to have the facilities of the Lakeside just up the road. I often think the relationship between Town and Gown is very much a one-way process. But the benefits that @Uni_of_Essex brings to the town outweigh the inconveniences (um… Clingoe Hill.