The Festival of Stone in Bristol was a monumental undertaking lasting from 31 May to 9 June – and it was great!

It came about as a result of Bristol architect Mike Richards seeing a performance stonemason while he was on on holiday in France. He persuaded the French stonemason, Laurent Donnadieu, to put on his performance in Bristol and the event grew around that. Mike Richards mobilised local support, including Bath Stone Group and Bristol stonemason Trevor Dring of the company Phidias, the Council and even internationally renowned stone carver Peter Randell-Page and comedian Ross Noble. The event attracted around 50 carvers. You can watch the video below to see more about the event and click here to see a video of the performance of M Donnadieu and his troupe (it is a bit slow to start, but just wait a few seconds and it will begin).

There will be more about the event in the June issue of Natural Stone Specialist magazine.