The Annual House Dinner is the premier formal dinner event in the BRISTOL 1904 ARTS calendar - Black Tie, naturally. An opportunity to scrub up, look our best and enjoy great dining, in fabulous company and great entertainment.

To start, we organised a drinks reception in the amazing and historic Oak Room of the Red Lodge for our Top Table invitees, who included amongst others, the Queens Representative, the Lord Lieutenant of Bristol - Mrs. Peaches Golding; the Lord Mayor of Bristol - Mrs. Paula O'Rourke and her husband consort Colm O'Rourke; the Bristol High Sheriff Ms. Alex Raikes and CEO of the organisation SARI (Stand Against Racism & Inequality); our guest Principal Speaker - Jaideep Barot, Head Master of the Bristol Grammar School; Master of the Antient Society of St. Stephen's Ringers - Robin Shellard; our own President - Timothy Chambers and our Chairman - Michael Newstead. 

After a starter of rich Tomato and Basil Soup, I had the Honey-Glazed Chicken Supreme with Madeira Sauce - with a wide selection of vegetables and dauphinoise and roast potatoes. (There were vegetarian options also available). And then a very delicious dessert of Burnt Lemon Tart with Plum Compote followed by a cheese course and coffee. Makes my mouth water just recalling it all, again!!

Our Master of Ceremonies for the evening was our Past President, John Bedford with his ever smooth delivery. And as part of the event we had a draw for four very fine paintings by our Red Feather Artists.

As I mentioned our guest Principal Speaker was Mr. Jaideep Barot, Head Master of the Bristol Grammar School (a former Physicist, Investment Banker and now teacher!) - ostensibly speaking on the fundamental value of the Arts in Education but also purposely reviewing ChatGPT AI (Artificial Intelligence platform) to make his points and concluding that human Art in Education is the one thing that will differentiate humans from and in an artificial intelligence world now and in the coming future.

Entertainment was provided after the dinner by our own Blue Feather Entertainers, Steve Price (our Entertainments Warden), Graham Smith and Jonathan Price - performing a variety of classical music, modern and traditional folk dance including Celtic and Bluegrass dance music roots.

Afterwards we were complimented by our VIP guests and members alike on the fantastic presentation of food, delightfully professional entertainment and the ambience that is unique to our main hall with all its wonderful artefacts and curiosities.

Thank you to all our VIP Guests, our Entertainers, Catering and all the many others that contributed to make it a joyeous and happy occasion. 

And we get to do it all again, next year!