Bridgwater has 6 twin towns around Europe. La Ciotat in France, Homberg in Germany, Uherske Hradiste in the Czech Republic, Marsa in Malta, Priverno in Italy and Camacha in Portugal. Every year the internationalists involved in these twinnings get together and celebrate those links with a major event at the Bridgwater Arts Centre that is open to the public. This year the event will be held on Saturday 6th July starting at 7.30. Doors will be open from 7pm and there will be a bar. Entry will be a token £5 per person which will go towards twinning funds.

The evening will feature talks, photos and films from the projects of the last 12 month and there will also be live music on stage.

This year the music will come from VOICE OF THE PEOPLE the Somerset choir that has toured to almost all of Bridgwater’s twin towns and will be returning to Priverno in Italy later this year.

Also on the bill will be TINYBEAN MUSIC which is the project of Bridgwater born singer songwriter and ukulele player Cathy Smedley whose new single ‘Love On the Hill’ has just been released.

Compere for the evening will be Voice of the People’s choir leader Yvette Staelens.

Annual Petanque Tournament

A more recent tradition introduced by Westover resident Michael Wheatley has been the annual Petanque tournament.

This will be the third year its been held and members of the public are welcome to turn up to Victoria Park, Bridgwater from 1130 to 3.30 on Saturday 6th July to see which of the 8 teams will triumph.

That’s the 6 twin towns plus a Bridgwater Town Council team representing the UK and an extra team representing the USA where Bridgwater has 13 ‘other’ Bridgewaters. (all with ‘E’s).