Bruges, Lille, London and Life. Part 2.

After having a major come down from my wonderful trip to Bruges and Lille, it was time to get back to reality and get cracking on the 2018 Twin Peaks UK Festival! First thing was to seal the deal on the venue!

Our venue for this year is the London Irish Centre in London's trendy Camden Square, a large converted Georgian house with a multitude of rooms to play with, but I felt I wanted just a bit more space to create our vision. Henceforth I entered into

discussions with Camden Council, who were super helpful and supportive, and managed to secure part of Camden Square Gardens itself to expand the outdoor section of our fest!

In Mid May I announced the venue and date for the 2018 festival to the world, and received hugely positive responses. Camden is such a cool, vibrant area and, having spent 3 years as the Venue Manager of the Roundhouse there, I was also looking forward to spending some good productive time back in this popular area. Not long after this announcement it was time to let the world in on our first special guest.

Now one thing I love about running the Twin Peaks UK Festival is the relationships I have with the fans, or Peakies as I call them, from all over the world. This festival is for them after all, and as they know, I love to have my little secret games with them. One of these games is the run up to the announcement of the guests. I give them three clues throughout the week and then announce on the Friday. I love seeing how their minds work in responses to the clues and when I published the first clue for the first guest, a lot of them guessed straight away - the brilliant John Pirruccello! John featured in the new Season 3 of 'Twin Peaks' as Deputy Chad Broxford, a corrupt cop who you couldn't help but love! I had dinner with John on my last trip to Los Angeles which was an absolute pleasure. He was so open and warm to chat to that I just know the fans are going to have a great time with him in September. They were delighted when his name popped up! So with John announced, I knew I had to make the clues a bit trickier with the second guest

announcement.

On the Friday that I was to announce the second guest, only one Peakie had made a correct guess! My work was done! I was very excited to see the reaction from the fans as I knew we had someone very special. At 8pm I announced Rebekah Del Rio...and my social media went nuts! Rebekah has achieved legendary status thanks to both the new 'Twin Peaks' and her scene stealing, haunting appearance in David Lynch's 'Mulholland Drive' where she sings an acapella Spanish version of 'Crying' by Roy Orbison (named 'Llorando'). It really is one of the most incredible moments of cinema history. But don't take my word, listen to it for yourselves...grab a tissue first.

So with John and Rebekah announced, the tickets went on sale! VIP tickets sold out in a record 2 minutes! 2 minutes! I felt like Kate Bush (ok so she had a hell of a lot more tickets than me to sell, but still......). We sold the most tickets that first day that we ever have in a first day, which always feels me with joy as it's the first flutter of knowing how special the festival is going to be again. And it always makes me smile when I see the familiar names of people who have been before. I guess I must be doing something right!

So now is when all the fun begins! When we start to go through episode after episode of Twin Peaks, new and original, and let our minds start to create the festival. Of course we'll always have the fans favourites such as our popular Art Gallery, Mulholland Drive Jitterbug Class and Lynch Inspired Short Films, but each year we try and bring something new to the festival. Last year I set my Production Manager, Nic, a great task! I told her I wanted to build the Glass Box from the new season. She took the challenge and ran with it, and knew just the man for the job. The result was a hugely popular 10ft by 6ft Instagram point which the fans could enter and do their best Agent Cooper impressions! So popular was this glass box that at one point I spotted at least 15 fans in there! Evidence below Peakies!