The July Culture Review

Once a month, we bring together reviews of Medway’s cultural highlights in a single round-up, produced exclusively for our paid supporters. This month, our team of intrepid cultural reviewers present music, festivals, books, food, and drink from across our towns...

The Libertines
Rochester Castle Gardens, 4 July

Someone once said, somewhere in the dusty annals of history, that each and every summer of your life should be bookmarked by at least one good memory. Paddling pools, holiday romances, even finding that long-forgotten electric fan in the back of the airing cupboard - it’s all good. It’s highly likely that a Rochester Castle park full of Libertines fans found their defining summer 2026 neural memento on a divine July evening.

The fact that the return to Medway of the noughties premier rock ‘n’ roll rapscallion collective was on American Independence Day was one which should raise a wry smile. Very much like their cherished idols of another time, The Clash, Messrs Doherty, Barat, Hassall, and Powell are, and always have been, sooooooo bored with the USA. Such fierce pride in all things Albion was always deeply ingrained into their DNA, as perfectly displayed by the projected backdrop behind the band as they took the stage at 8.45pm: Their Margate HQ, The Albion Rooms. This is the band after all that gave us the lyric “There’s fewer more distressing sights than that of an Englishman in a baseball cap,” perfectly encapsulating the Libertines longstanding appeal: clipped, crisp, rhythmically punchy. Apt terms also to describe their performance in Rochester.

Although the initial quadrant of their 1 hour 15 minute set was taken up largely with newer material, they proudly and bombastically paid homage to their past, with considerable aplomb. A particularly rousing moment was when Pete Doherty strapped on an acoustic guitar, and we were serenaded with a blissful, Beatles-esque ‘Music When The Lights Go Out,’ from their eponymous second album. The way that Pete and Carl’s voices interlocked in haunting harmony, just at the point that the sky turned red with the setting sun, was a moment of universally diffused sublime serenity. And all of us felt it very, very deeply.

The British Invasion-meets-Doo Wop influenced ‘What Katie Did’ was also a rendition underscoring the fact that this was absolutely no “Three chords and RAA! RAA! RAA!” act. The Libertines always had, at their nucleus, possession of that holiest of grails in music: genuine songwriting and performance genius. The final 15 minutes or so of their set was what the world was waiting for – ‘Up the Bracket’, ‘What A Waster’, ‘Run Run Run’, and set closer – what else? – ‘Don’t Look Back Into The Sun.’

If you expected a frenzied, shambolic performance, seeped in the chaotic narcotica of days long gone by, you would have been sorely disappointed. But if what one required of the evening was an utterly first-class, tight, well-rehearsed presentation of some of the most blood-heating and passionate, witty songs of the last thirty years, which left one skipping the cobbles of Rochester afterwards, hand-in-hand with one’s significant other, humming the catchy, Reeperbahny bassline from ‘Can’t Stand Me Now,’ while awaiting an Uber carriage back down to Earth - mission well and truly accomplished. - Simon Grey

Chatham & District Model Railway Show
Chatham Historic Dockyard, 18 Jul

This is the second year the Chatham & District Model Railway Club have held a show inside what feels like the post-industrial cathedral of the covered slipway car park of Chatham Historic Dockyard. It is the second time I have taken my teenage train enthusiast son to the event, and for the true believer this does have a church-like quality. The congregation gathers from far and wide, for a welcoming mixture of trade show, craft fair, repair shop and art gallery. Aisles are set up row upon row, bearing travelling layouts, whole worlds in miniature, interspersed with sales stalls offering new and used model rolling stock across a variety of scales and gauges, scenery, buildings (flat-packed and otherwise) and accessories, including at least three stalls selling 00 gauge Count Binface’s. The show opened at 10am, and there was a queue for the opening and not just for the pick of the used train bargains. There is a real sense of community and the people have gathered to be in amongst it, across more of an age range than the Dockyard’s resident NAAFI tea wagon would suggest, although people who used steam power for practicality rather than nostalgia are in attendance. In keeping the magic in life, they are so lucky. Last year, feeling rather more timid, my son restricted himself to shopping. But this year he found that if he talked to the assembled stallholders he was able to get a long broken locomotive repaired and a new engine airbrushed into a distressed finish while he watched.

From my more spectator-like position, it was the layouts, the models of life as seen from the passing windows of miniature rolling stock that were the real joy here. Model clubs from round the country packed up hills and dales, snow scenes and forest, allotments and factories, illustrations of children’s stories and even cyberpunk dystopias, all with accompanying populations and rolling stock across 0, 00 and TT scales and reassembled them in the sun-dappled dockyard. Last year there was more emphasis on the more portable TT (tabletop) scale layouts, but this year there was an impressive array of large scale 0 gauge tracksides. My personal favourites were the harbour scene from Bristol and the Abbey Light Railway in Leeds, complete with woodland and ruins, but all were impressive in the extreme. 

A surprisingly broad and welcoming church I will be happy to attend again next year, as the show is already booked for a return to the Dockyard on the 17 and 18 July 2027. - Stuart Turner

WHOOP Heritage Festival
Hoo Peninsula, 17 May

Now in its second year, mid-May’s WHOOP Heritage Festival was a sublime showcase of how to celebrate the rich natural, historical and cultural heritage woven across the Hoo Peninsula.

Spread over multiple sites, this annual community event, produced by Medway-based cultural organisation LV21 in collaboration with local community partners, brings together engaging stories, imaginative people and inspiring places.  

An eclectic programme stretched from Higham in the west to the Isle of Grain in the east, and from Hoo St Werburgh in the south to Allhallows in the north, offering something for every curious wanderer. WHOOP forms part of the Whose Hoo partnership project, funded by the National Lottery Heritage Fund, reflecting the vision that heritage really is for everyone: a powerful catalyst for imagination ignition, community connection and pride in place.

Full disclosure: I was working the Saturday at Hoo Village Hall, full of artists and community groups sharing their knowledge about birdlife. Fortunately, no feathers flew at this family-friendly event, but much fun was had in the arts and crafts, walks and talks and immersive installations. You could even throw some shapes at the silent disco, light-up headphones and all.

I was disappointed not to make it to all the sites, in particular the Grain Coast Crafty Alpaca Farm where visitors were spoiled for choice with The Lonely Avocet interactive puppet show and other live performances, artistic alchemy in action and the chance to weave the residents’ soft wool into a personal souvenir of an engaging day. 

For me, however, the best was left to last as, on the Sunday evening, I joined the Hoo safari in search of the great Hooley, a mythical bird said to bestow great fortune on those lucky enough to encounter it in the wild.

Before the sun set, there was no time to waste in hunting down the elusive Hooley. On arrival, we were efficiently greeted by Major Murmuration, who kitted us out with safari hats, camouflage binoculars and bird-inspired aliases to make sure we looked the part and took our assignment seriously. For the duration of this top secret mission, I would only answer to Duck Norris. Other memorable monikers included Cleopecktra, Justin Beaker and, naturally, it would be remiss of Medway me not to mention Charles Chickens. 

Tinged with a tally-ho and 40s vibe, our ragtag gang of intrepid explorers bundled onto minibuses and followed clues to three secret destinations. Along the way, we learned fascinating facts about the Peninsula, played bird bingo (kazoos provided to signify success) and listened to Jane Pitt’s gorgeous soundscape.

I genuinely didn’t know that Hoo had been mentioned in the Domesday Book, that woodpeckers’ beaks hammer at speeds of up to 20 times a second or that the peninsula is home to the largest heronry in the UK. Every day really is a school day!

It’s fair to say that we experienced the peninsula at its finest, all the while being treated to highly entertaining immersive theatre and delicious delicacies at each of the three beautiful stops. First up was the gorgeous Grain Coastal Path, offering spectacular views across the estuary, retro ice-cream (lemon curd, thank you very much) and the first of Play On Words Theatre’s spiffing performances. 

After uncovering key coordinates, we hotfooted it to the fabulous Fenn Bell, which provided the backdrop for a rather dramatic vignette involving a wooden horse, some elongated intestines and a subsequent miraculous recovery, all accompanied by a beautiful cacophony of birdsong and some tasty chips and dips to keep our pecker up.

En route to our last location, we learnt a rhythmic clap designed to help lure the Hooley out of hiding. It was also the moment to write heartfelt wishes on the back of the luggage tag which bore our bird names.

Eternal Lake Nature Reserve provided a stunning venue for the Hooley’s reveal, an iridescent coloured creature soaring high above us, entrancing and enchanting all who looked on. Afterwards, we channelled our inner Charleston flapper and, in a moving denouement, our written wishes were tossed into the firepit, their embers dancing dizzily into the warm night sky.

It really was a safari like no other, and I take my (safari) hat off to everyone involved as I can only imagine how much hard work went on behind the scenes to ensure we had such a hoot during the seamless search for the great Hooley. 

After such a wondrous weekend, there were whoops of delight all round to hear next year’s dates have already been announced. Needless to say, 15 and 16 May are firmly in the diary. - Anne Marie Jordan