Hello! An honest one this week: it's the quietest spread since this newsletter started.
With just this weekend and the bank holiday left before school goes back, and the good weather on borrowed time, the best plan might simply be getting out of the city, to the beach or up onto Dartmoor. But if you'd rather have a plan ready-made, here are five that still look worth a go.
The Good Stuff
The Hairy Hands of Dartmoor, Exeter Library
The Story Store are performing a new interactive play based on the Dartmoor legend, made with Devon young people and aimed at 6 to 10 year olds. It's on Saturday at 11am in the library's Rougemont Room, and runs about an hour with 30 minutes of activities afterwards.
Tickets are £4. A rare bit of family theatre in the city centre, and worth booking rather than chancing it on the door.
| When: | Saturday 22 August, 11am |
| Where: | Exeter Library, Castle Street, EX4 3PQ |
| Cost: | £4 |
Moana Sing-Along, Exeter Phoenix
The live-action Moana as a sing-along screening in Studio 74, Saturday at 10.30am. Wall-to-wall songs everyone already knows by heart, and for once belting them out at full volume is the whole point.
£5 plus a £1.50 booking fee, rated PG. One to note: it's the same Saturday morning as the Hairy Hands show, so it's one or the other.
| When: | Saturday 22 August, 10.30am |
| Where: | Studio 74, Exeter Phoenix, Gandy Street, EX4 3LS |
| Cost: | £5 plus £1.50 booking fee |
Bounce Southwest, Greendale
The big outdoor inflatable park closes for the year on 1 September, so this is one of its last two weekends. Sessions run 90 minutes with the South West's biggest slide and the 120m Slip and Slide.
Tickets are £14.49 each, and an adult with an under-4 gets in on a single £14.49 ticket, which is a decent deal for littles. Saturday sessions at 11am, 1pm and 2.30pm, and it's worth booking online ahead.
| When: | Saturday and Sunday, sessions from 11am |
| Where: | Greendale Farm Shop, near Exeter (about 15 minutes) |
| Cost: | £14.49 per ticket; adult with under-4 on one £14.49 ticket |
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Worth the Drive
Moretonhampstead Food and Drink Festival
The town's carnival volunteers are taking over the square on Saturday from 10am to 4pm with 25-plus local producers, so expect churros, fudge and brownies alongside the serious stuff, plus live entertainment and Morris dancing.
Free entry, free parking in town, and it supports Hospiscare. About 35 to 40 minutes out, right on the edge of Dartmoor, so it pairs nicely with a leg-stretch on the moor after.
| When: | Saturday 22 August, 10am to 4pm |
| Where: | Moretonhampstead town centre, TQ13 8NL (about 35 to 40 minutes from Exeter) |
| Cost: | Free entry, free parking |
One free thing
Summer Book Quest Games Day, St Thomas Library
Free drop-in all day Saturday, 9am to 5pm, with a treasure hunt indoors and out, a go at making the longest bunting ever, and a guessing jar full of Skittles.
It ties into the Summer Book Quest reading challenge, and if yours haven't started the quest yet, this is an easy way in with a couple of weeks still to run.
| When: | Saturday 22 August, 9am to 5pm |
| Where: | St Thomas Library, Emmanuel Hall, Emmanuel Road, EX4 1EJ |
| Cost: | Free |
That's everything worth knowing about for this weekend. If you go to anything and it's either brilliant or a disaster, hit reply and say so. It comes straight to the inbox. Have a good one.
Details change. Check each venue's website before setting off, especially for timed entry or one-off events.
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