Looking Back Over Our Year and Looking Forward To The Next

It’s been an incredible year for all of us here at Dukes this year. So many great events have been taking place in Bath. We’ve welcomed guests both new and old to the city, and have enjoyed seeing familiar faces coming back to stay us, as well as meeting new visitors who we hope we’ll be able to see again soon. We really do feel that everyone who comes to Dukes is much more than a visitor, and each time one of our guests comes back to stay with us it’s like seeing an old friend again.  We’re hoping for much more of that next year! But before we get into 2016 we wanted to take a quick look back at some of the highlights from 2015.

In February we had the Bath Literature Festival in Bath. The programme of events included talks from top names authors who wrote some of the biggest books of the past year. Kazuo Ishiguro, Kate Mosse and David Nicholls were just three of the big names who came to Bath. (This year has another brilliant line-up too. Brain Blessed, Tessa Hadley and Jonathon Dimbleby to name but three).   

The Bath Fringe Festival takes place at the end of May/beginning of June, and is often host to some of the acts that go on to wow at the Edinburgh Fringe. Bath’s theatre scene is one of the most thriving in the UK, and this is true the year round, not only during the two-week festival. The Bath Theatre Royal certainly lived up to its reputation this year. It’s hard to choose our favourite, but one of the shows that’s at the top of our list has to be the multi-media live stage adaptation of George Orwell’s Nineteen Eighty-Four.

Also in June there was the Festival of Nature, and in July there was the Bath Carnival, which saw the whole city get involved in Rio Carnival themed workshops and a grand carnival parade. 

September is the month in which the annual Jane Austen Festival takes place when, even if you’re not involved in the festival yourself, you can still find yourself drinking coffee next to a costumed Mr Darcy or a Miss Bennet. Regency meets modern is something that Bath is particularly good at.

In October Bath had it’s heritage week and we particularly appreciated the late night candle-lit opening hours at the Roman Baths and 

And then of course there’s the Bath Christmas Market that was back again this year for its fifteenth visit. Bigger and better than ever not even the rain could put a damper on people’s spirits and the market was humming with visitors every day. 

It’s been a great year and we can’t wait to see what 2016 will bring. 

From everyone here at Dukes, we wish you a happy new year!