MINEHEAD Rotary Club held its annual fund-raising Santa fun run on the sea front on Sunday (November 30).

Blessed with a perfect morning, the turnout was good and an array of runners of all ages set off to complete one or two of the 2 km laps set out along Minehead’s sunlit promenade.

The club would like to thank all runners for taking part.

Thanks are also owed to everybody who helped arrange the event, ensuring that everything went so smoothly.

The club enjoyed having two Butlin’s Redcoats with us who walked the route with one of our collecting buckets, encouraging all of the participants.

Also joining for the morning were David Jones, community partnerships fund-raiser for St Margaret’s Hospice.

The proceeds of this year's event will be shared between St Margaret’s Hospice and local Rotary projects.

A HEARTFELT invitation to Dunster St George’s Church first-ever Christmas tree festival is extended to residents and those further afield who cherish the festive spirit of Christmas.

Everybody is encouraged to join in the celebrations, ensuring the occasion remains relaxed, inclusive, and open to all who wish to experience the magic of the season together.

The free to enter festival runs from 10 am to 4 pm on Saturday, December 13.

Festival highlights include

• Decorated Christmas Trees: A vibrant array of decorated Christmas trees will be on display, each reflecting the creativity of individuals and community groups such as ‘Dunster WI’ and ‘Dunster Village Gardens’. Every tree will showcase its own unique design, celebrating the artistic flair within the community.

• Festive Café: The Festive Café will be open from 10 am to 3.30 pm, offering a variety of seasonal refreshments. This will help to enhance the cheerful atmosphere and provide a delightful space for visitors to relax and enjoy the festivities.

A representative from the church’s organising committee has conveyed their enthusiasm about bringing the Christmas Tree Festival to St George’s Church for the very first time.

They expressed their heartfelt hope that residents and visitors alike will join to make the event truly special.

The organisers look forward to seeing the community unite in support of this festive celebration, reinforcing the season’s spirit of togetherness and goodwill.

WEST Somerset College students shone again at the Regal Theatre, where they performed Little Shop of Horrors as this year's school show.

The effort, pizazz, and teamwork executed by WSC students was utterly impeccable, high quality acting, singing, solos, dance, and puppeteering of professional grade musical theatre props provided by Scenetec gave the students a real challenge, which they stepped up to gloriously to create a fabulous show for Minehead once again.

Our leads Will Goble and Chloe Chapman-Humpries, bravely shone to put on a captivating performance as Seymour and Audrey in what was their first time being a principal lead in a school show, supported beautifully by a cast made up from students in years nine to 11 - Mickey Murphy, Noah Antonelli, Holly Fisher, Reuben Pattison, Serena Bailey, Abbi Bryant, Brooke Nicholas, Bella Nicholas, Iola Tompson, Isabella Lyder, Amy Brendon, Polly Pyburn, Jorgie Sanders, Reece Tapp, Zander Smith, George Paddison, Kaci Terrell, and Jamie Bonar.

As ever, the college show was created thanks to a superb effort across all year groups, the set was painted by our lovely sixth form art students Caitlyn Batham and Nayumi Nunez, dance choreography was designed and taught to lower school pupils by the fabulous Phoebe Bailey in year 12, our super year 13 students Caitlyn, Kerry Bishop, and Willow Usher were on hand to help Barry West and Chaz Hardiman (both seasoned Regal volunteers) in the light and sound boxes, while Phoebe and Nayumi did a fantastic job of overseeing set changes backstage.

The textiles department and DT departments led by Sally Scyner and Rich Williamson also produced costumes, designed by Lauren Palmer, and large props for the show, with thanks to students in those clubs.

Extra-curricular events like these would not be possible without staff giving up their time to support in all areas and chaperone on the night.

Special thanks must go to Sally Scyner, Sophie Bohun, Lauren Palmer, and Holly Wright, who gave up their time to help staff show days and evenings.

We are so lucky to have the Regal as such a fabulous venue here in Minehead.

A huge thanks must go to all of the fantastic volunteers who put hours of their time, expertise, and enthusiasm into our local theatre to ensure the next generation are continuing to experience, thrive within, and enjoy the arts.

Georgie Brown, head of performing arts, West Somerset College, and Sam Cottle

ON a blustery and damp Saturday evening (November 29), keen fans of choral music came to Minehead Methodist Church to enjoy this evening of joyous music to kick-start the Christmas spirit.

There was a sizeable audience for the Minehead and District Choral Society’s evening of festive music, creating an atmosphere of anticipation.

Introductions were made by the chair of the society, who mentioned the musicians accompanying the choir - Angela Morecroft (piano), Nicole Willis (flute), Rainer Dolz (clarinet and saxophone), and Sue Donovan (organ).

Musical director Marcus Capel gave a brief outline of the programme, which consisted of two halves.

The first half was Bob Chilcott’s ‘On Christmas Night’, a series of eight carols interspersed with appropriate readings.

The first carol was ‘This is the Truth’ and the flute accompaniment floated beautifully over the choir.

The sound was nicely balanced but due to the acoustics of the venue the voices sounded a bit distant.

Or, perhaps this was a bit of reticence on the part of the choir in front of a large audience.

A bit of both no doubt.

Nevertheless, the difficult harmonies were handled nicely, especially when it came to ‘A Spotless Rose’.

‘O Little Town’ would have been difficult with the two solo parts but although a little hesitant, came over in the right spirit of the piece.

‘Sweet was the Song’ showed a settling of the choir which gained more confidence.

The arrangement as written came across as a lovely mixture of harmonies well spread across the voices.

With ‘Rejoice and be Merry’ the choir was in full swing and the energy followed through to ‘This Is the Truth’.

Refreshments were provided in the hall where we had a chance to chat with some of the choir members and musicians, which was lovely as the audience contained many of their friends and admirers.

The second half was a traditional Christmas concert opening with ‘Once in Royal David’s City’.

After the solo verse, the audience did not disappoint, joining in robustly with the ensuing verses and the descant in the last verse was delightful with the organ in full flow.

The traditional carols were punctuated by a rarely performed Canadian ‘Huron Carol’, originally written in the Huron Indian language, music by Jean de Brebeuf.

This story of the nativity was sung descriptively with an arrangement by Sarah Quartel.

Then came Rutter’s ‘Angels’ Chorus’, so appealing and sweetly sung.

We all joined in with ‘Hark the Herald…’ (arr. D.Willcox) in full voice, albeit a little behind the tempo set by the conductor.

What a difficult task!

I could see Marcus urging the audience on, always with a genuine smile on his face.

In the ‘The Nativity Carol’ (Rutter) it was difficult not to be carried away in the melody and it was sung so expressively together with the flute, clarinet, and piano accompaniment as always.

With the ‘Candlelight Carol’ one could almost imagine the choir swaying, holding lit candles.

It was light and airy and you could see the choir was really enjoying it.

We then all sang ‘O Little Town of Bethlehem’, a must.

This was followed by ‘It’s the Most Wonderful Time of the Year’ (arr. Bob Krogstad), introducing the versatility of the choir, which was then augmented by their rendition of Jose Feliciano’s ‘Feliz Navidad’ (arr. Paul Langford) which bounced along to a Latin rhythm complete with bongos.

The feature piece of this collection was ‘Have Yourself a Very Merry Christmas’ (arr. A.Warell).

An innovative arrangement with some jazz elements and tricky harmonies all enthusiastically carried out with a jazzy ending in a major 7th chord.

Nice to hear.

No Christmas concert would be complete without a rousing ‘O Come All Ye Faithful’ joyfully sung by all.

The programme concluded with ‘We Wish You a Merry Christmas’ with a happy arrangement by Arthur Warell and we all felt well wished by an enthusiastic choir with an energetic accompaniment, perhaps at times a bit louder than the choir, but that was surely due to the acoustic of the venue, as stated before, which tended to absorb some of the voices.

This did not detract form the overall enjoyment of the concert.

Well done to Marcus Capel for pulling it all together and congratulations to the Minehead and District Choir.

A very enjoyable evening in spite of the weather outside.

Paul Tam