This weekend sees a trio of events in Dartmouth starting with the Dartmouth Music Festival on Friday, headlined by the Military Wives along a host of other performers including Grainne Duffy, Bo Diddley’s protégé Hamilton Loomis, The Larry Garner Blues Band and The Martin Harley Band. 

The Festival lasts three days and features over 80 groups and soloists performing at venues around this pretty coastal town. 

On Saturday Monty Halls and Nigel Legge from BBC2’s The Fisherman’s Apprentice, will be holding a question and answer session as well as a book signing from 4pm at Monty’s Great Escapes shop on Market Square. 

Visitors to Agatha Christie’s rural retreat can now arrive in style – aboard a steam train!

The infamous Greenway near Dartmouth has its own steam train station – Greenway Halt - for 2012, and it runs from Paignton and Dartmouth.  

The station is part of the Dartmouth Steam Railway and River Boat Company line.

Dartmouth’s 6th Comedy Festival is back in slapstick style from 6-10 March featuring among others Jenny Eclair, Mark Steel and Miles Jupp in a series of sketches and shows over the five days of this hilarious hoedown.

 All tickets for the Festival can be purchased online at www.theflavel.org.uk

Mark Steel

Congratulations to the winner of our Dartmouth Food Festival competition – Tracy Noble from Oxfordshire.

Tracy entered our competition at the Dartmouth Food Festival back in October 2011, and she’s the lucky winner of a £500 voucher towards a break with Blue Chip Holidays!

Many thanks to all of you who entered the draw, and we wish Tracy a fantastic holiday. 

There’s not much explanation needed for this one, with only 10 days to go until we’re reaching for our New Year’s outfits we’ve listed our ten favourite events across the South West. They say it’s always the quiet ones, and some of the sleepiest towns and villages in Devon and Cornwall come into their own on 31 each year!

Dartmouth

Dartmouth’s celebrations are so renowned that it was featured in The Guardian’s Top 5 New Year Parties poll. The winding streets of the port fill with thousands of revellers in fancy dress, and the fireworks light up the River Dart.

This winter the South West is set to lighten up with a host of candlelit festivals starting on Wednesday 16 November with Truro’s spectacular City of Lights celebration.

This is followed by a candlelight procession through the medieval Exmoor village of Dunster on 2 and 3 December, finishing with a lantern parade through the charming coastal town of Dartmouth on 3 December.

In Truro, giant lanterns make their way through the streets creating a dazzling procession of withy and tissue creations inspired by the theme of wildlife. Professional artists and children will show off their beastly creations as they glow and dance through the alleys.

We’re all reaching for our aprons and rolling up our sleeves here at Blue Chip, as the Dartmouth Food Festival takes place this weekend.

Blue Chip Holidays are proud sponsors of the festival, and it’s one of the biggest weekends in the Dartmouth events diary.

South Devon’s Dartmouth fills with delicious smells and the sound of sizzling as celebrity chefs demonstrate their skills, visitors pack in to pick up tips and nibbles, and the county celebrates its fine produce.

The Dartmouth Food Festival is nearly upon us again (yes, it really has been a whole year!) so we thought we’d celebrate the countdown with some foodie-friendly blogs.

As it happens, tomorrow marks the start of British Cheese Week, which runs from 24 September – October 2, so what more of an excuse do you need for some cheese, crackers and a drop of wine this weekend?!

This great British cheese festival promotes the weird and wonderful cheese of our nation to the rest of the world.

Torquay is famous as Agatha Christie’s birthplace, but her summer home - Greenway, near Dartmouth is THE place for fans of the author to visit.

Nestled on a hill overlooking the river Dart, Greenway gives a fascinating look into the life and family behind the novels.  The property is now owned by the National Trust, and includes many of the family’s personal possessions and collections.

Agatha loved South Devon, and the family spent many a summer hidden in the peaceful grounds of Greenway. The stunning property boasts its own gardens, tennis courts, pool, air raid shelter and quay.

The Royal Wedding has us all feeling a little regal, so here’s an idea for a royal day out in Dartmouth – the Britannia Royal Naval College.

The prestigious college hit the headlines in 2008 when Prince William himself spent two months training there.

The imposing college has loomed above the historic town in Devon since 1905, and it’s still one of the greatest military academies in the world.