Glyndebourne Festival Opera - Glyndebourne Festival Opera

Advantages: Good and often outstanding performances, plus the sight of the English picnicking in dinner jackets and long dresses
Disadvantages: Getting there, unless you live near Brighton; getting a ticket - you need to be persistent

Glyndebourne is a country house near Lewes in Sussex (not far from Brighton) with a full scale opera house attached. The Glyndebourne season (late May to early September) is world famous and runs (typically) six different fully produced operas in repertory. The unique (until recently, it has been copied!) formula is that the opera starts late afternoon and there is an 80-minute "dinner interval", when many people picnic in the beautiful gardens. ...
...The biggest misconceptions about Glyndebourne are: - you have to be a member: not true, though members and those on the waiting list get priority for the best seats - it is very expensive: not true. Best seats in the stalls may be £100 but we regularly go for about £25 and many people stand/lean for a tenner. Since you bring your own food and wine this outing is much cheaper than an evening in London including theatre, bar and restaurant, and ... Read review