The Stow Festival have announced the dates for 2012, and details of how to apply. The four-day music festival will run from Thursday 20 September to Sunday 23 September. It will feature music from a range of bands and performers of all musical styles.

Last year’s award-winning Stow Festival featured 19 gigs in 10 venues across four days in Walthamstow, with over 1,500 people attending. This year promises to be even better.

Details of how to apply to be part of The Stow Festival 2012 are on the festival website now!

The ever-popular E17 Designers Spring Fair returns on Friday 11 May at the Asian Centre on Orford Road. A range of arts and crafts will be on offer at the event.

The E17 Designers events are usually good fun to visit, we’ve always enjoyed them. There are a lots of stalls selling a variety of crafty goods, and everyone is happy to have a chin-wag about the local area. There’s music, food, and the first drink is free.

Entry is £2, and the event runs from 7-10pm at the Asian Centre in Walthamstow Village. More details about the event are on the E17 Designers website.

Why has it taken me two months to write this little article about The Mill? I think I know… I am a little embarrassed to confess just how much I am in love with The Mill.

If you don’t know it, and it seems lots of people don’t yet, The Mill is a gorgeous community centre near Oxfam on the St James Street end of the High Street. Searching for venues to hold Grow Your Own Theatre drama classes, I stumbled across this intriguing place about to open.

I looked it up on the A to Z, but could only find St James Street Library… ah, but this is the start of the story. Faced with imminent closure, the local residents formed an action group and campaigned tirelessly and selflessly to let their feelings be known. Despite not managing to save the library, the group were successful in keeping the building for community use. In April 2011, the group got the keys to the building, and with funding from NESTA to pay the lease to the council, so began the transformation to The Mill as it is today.

From the moment I walked into The Mill, I was smitten. Alison (Chair of the Trustees) had managed to persuade some graduate architects to come and live in the building (I know!). They had created wonders – everywhere you look, you can see their innovative efforts. From pipe covers, to benches out of computer tables, children’s rocking horse bookcases and shelves for the new honesty library – the Mill looks wonderful. F-a-c-e studios now have a stall at St James Street Market where you can order your very own Mill bench. So many local groups got involved, Cheeky Handmades held classes in making patchwork curtains out of old jeans, and volunteers made cushions.

I think it may be one of the best looking community centres out there. But it’s not all about looks, is it?

You see, The Mill is now a thriving community centre. I went in the other day to have a meeting with a potential drama assistant (result: I can have a cup of tea and a chat while the kids play in the lovely play area) and while I was there the baby managed to charm/annoy an ESOL group who were meeting in the garden room and a sewing group making neighbourly patches with Catherine of Significant Seams in the meeting room. I also met a new volunteer who was working reception, talked to Natasha about E17 Art Trail moving into the offices upstairs and smiled at various people who had come in to read papers. Phew! And that was just a normal Wednesday…

I love that The Mill is a real community centre. Everybody, from 3 year olds enjoying the immensely popular Creative Dance sessions on a Sunday morning (so good they’ve had to do it twice) to the Recycled Teenagers (genius). There is a strong multi-cultural feel too, with volunteers from various backgrounds, Asian sewing and Spanish for beginners.

And I really should mention that Grow Your Own Theatre will be holding our own youth theatre at The Mill, continuing our Saturday Seedlings drama, and making classes for 3-7 years too. We were lucky enough to secure one of the grants provided for by NESTA and The Mill, designed to promote activity at The Mill and help people get a variety of classes up and running. This was incredibly useful and gratefully received – not just the money – but the opportunity to experiment and try things out.

So, I think ultimately it is the heart and the vibe of the Mill that I adore.  People making it happen.

Sadly, the funding ran out in April this year, The Mill had to say goodbye to much-loved Community Organiser John, and so The Mill needs YOUR help if it is to continue. It really is a centre for us – the whole Walthamstow community. Go and visit, do a class or have a cup of tea and a biscuit and make a donation. Let your children play in the play area, volunteer, borrow a book from the honesty library but go!

You can donate at via The Mill’s website or, if you have 5 minutes, please vote for Grow Your Own Theatre to receive some funding from Enterprise Nation.

Thanks for the support.

Sarah Chase is Artistic Director at Grow Your Own Theatre, and tweets at @eskacy.

Sarah Chase does not work for The Mill. All information correct at time of writing.

Brodie’s Beers are hosting another ‘Bunny Basher’ beer festival at the King William IV pub near Baker’s Arms over Easter. The beer festival will feature forty Brodie’s beers.

Bunny Basher 3 is, as you might deduce, the third such beer festival at the William, and the past two have been very well attended. Ales available at this festival will include Awesomestow IPA (7%), a Cola Mild at 3.2% or the traditional Elizabethan, at a whopping 22%. Remember, drink responsibly, you crazy kids. Most of the beers are a very reasonable £1.99 at the William, so you can try and range of the delights. A full list of the beers available at the festival is on the Brodie’s Beers website.

King William IV

As well as beers, the festival usually features some freshly cooked food and a general sense of bonhomie. There is a Facebook event for the event here.

Bunny Basher 3 runs over the Easter weekend, beginning on Friday 6 April. The King William IV is very near the Baker’s Arms, opposite Tesco (technically in Leyton).

Stow Scene: Apologies for the quality of the poster image above, it’s the best we’ve got!

The song draws on the classic ‘House of the Rising Sun’, and MTV Brand New had this to say about it:

What you think is going to be a refreshing reimagining of The House of the Rising Sun suddenly transforms into a bombastic rock/rap epic before lurching into another dimension three bars later. The changes aren’t jarring, they’re liberating.

Check out the cool video below. For more information, visit the The Stow’s website.

Local charity Worth Unlimited are holding a charity auction and fundraising night with music and magic on Saturday 28 April. The event will be hosted at the Blackhorse Road Baptist Church.

Worth Unlimited are a local Christian charity who have been running for around 11 years. The Waltham Forest branch has got one full-time member of staff, some part-time staff and rely heavily on volunteers. They offer a range of activities aimed at helping marginalised young people with problems they face. The charity also runs a Mobile Youth Unit in partnership with the Youth Service at the council. Full details on the Waltham Forest branch of Worth Unlimited can be found on their website.

The charity auction is aimed at raising money for the organisation. As well as the auction, they are promising music and magic on the evening. Tickets are £10, and for more information contact Worth Unlimited on 020 8090 5045 or email them.

The auction is hosted at the Blackhorse Road Baptist Church, 65 Blackhorse Road, E17 7AS. More information on the church can be found on their website.

Vintage Cabaraoke returns in April with an evening entitled ‘The Disco Years’. The party happens on Saturday 21 April at the usual venue, the Orford House Social Club.

Vintage Cabaraoke nights are always popular and this looks like no exception. ‘The Disco Years’ will be themed around the mid-1970′s music scene, and feature Slick Nick as the host and vinyl DJ, karaoke, and a liver performance from The Vibes. The Vibes play Motown, funk and disco, and you can find out more information about them on their website. 1970′s outfits are encouraged, to make the evening go with a swing.

Vintage Cabaraoke have also launched a brand spanking new website, which you can check out here. Tickets for ‘The Disco Years’ are £11 and available in advance here. It is on Saturday 21 April at 7.30pm until Midnight. The Orford House Social Club is on Orford Road, near the Queens Arms.

'Grit and Steel' ale festival

The Waltham Forest Sports & Social Club, located next to the Town Hall, is holding its 8th Real Ale festival in April. Called ‘Grit and Steel’, the festival will celebrate the beers of Derbyshire and Sheffield.

The Sports & Social Club is a decent little pub which, by virtue of its location, gets a little overlooked in the local area. The ale festival promises 25 real ales, ciders and perries, with food also available. There will also be live music on the Friday and Saturday of the festival, although the line-up is still to be confirmed at time of writing. Previous ale festivals have had some good bands as well as good beers, so it will be worth heading down.

The festival runs from Thursday 26 April to Sunday 29 April (when the club shuts at 5pm). The Waltham Forest Sports & Social Club is on Forest Road, E17 4JF. It is technically a members club, and entry for non-members is £1 (or £3 after 8pm on a Saturday).  Club members and CAMRA members can get in free.

Screen 17, Walthamstow’s microplex cinema, will be screening Fantastic Mr Fox and Senna during April. The screenings, at Orford House Social Club, are increasingly popular, and come with a host of offers.

We’ve been fans of Screen 17 for a while now, and recently they have been developing some interesting partnerships with other local businesses. The Fantastic Mr Fox screening will feature a storytelling session run by Walthamstow Waterstones. This partnership builds on the special offers Waterstones offered at the recent screening of Midnight in Paris. Alternatively, Eat 17 offer a 10% discount on a meal on the night of an evening film screening, if the sitting is at 6pm and you present your Screen 17 booking reference. We really like this kind of relationship between local businesses. It’s mutually beneficial and helps build a sense of connectedness in the local area.

The screening of Senna will also offer a Film Swap Shop, where you can bring along films you’ve finished with and (as you might guess from the title) swap them for other ones. There is a licensed bar for evening screenings, and freshly made popcorn on offer.

Fantastic Mr Fox is being shown on Friday 13 April as part of the Screen 17 Junior Film Club. The screening of the Wes Anderson movie opens at 10.30am, with a storytelling session preceding the 11am showing. Click here for details of timings and tickets.

Senna is being shown on Thursday 19 April. Doors open at 7.45pm for an 8.30pm screening. The venue is open until 11pm. Click here for details of timings and tickets.

There are two other additional screenings planned for April, The Lion King and The Incredible Journey. Details of both of these screenings will be on the Screen 17 website soon.

*Update 19/03/2012 – This article was amended to reflect the fact that there is no craft session before Fantastic Mr Fox. The date of The Incredible Journey will be on the Screen 17 website soon (at time of writing).

As party of their new late night opening on Thursday evenings, Wood Street Indoor Market are holding a swing night on Thursday 5 April. Craft Guerrilla are curating the evening of dancing, shopping and cocktails under the banner of ‘Lindyshopping!’.

Jerome Anderson will be hosting a dance class at 7pm, Tony Tunes will be spinning some tunes, and Anja Jane will be serving up delicious cocktails from her café gallery. Craft Guerrilla themselves will also be hosting a craft workshop from 7pm. Wood Street Indoor Market have recently started holding late-night shopping until 8pm on a Thursday, and if you’ve not been to the recently relaunched market, it is worth a trip.

Spaces at the dance class can be pre-booked here, and the craft workshop can be pre-booked here. More details about the night are on the Wood Street Indoor Market website, and if you’re this way inclined, you can say you’re going on the Facebook event page too.