Cheerio! Britsburgh Festival keeps getting bigger and better

The Britsburgh Festival just keeps getting bigger and better.

The fifth annual event organized by British-American Connections Pittsburgh, a nonprofit that celebrates ties between Pittsburgh and Great Britain, expands to a full week this year.

Britsburgh starts on Labor Day, Sept. 2, and runs through Sept. 8, with more events offered in the evenings and on the weekend this year at the request of members, according to festival chairman Robert Charlesworth of Bridgeville.

Charlesworth says there’s something for everyone in the festival lineup.

“If they’re inquisitive or have any like at all for anything British — whether it’s the Royal Family or tea — we have a lot of fun events that cater to children and families,” he says.

It seems only proper to kick off the festivities with tea — “A Right Royal Afternoon Tea” to be exact, from 2:30 to 4:30 p.m. Sept. 2 at Mansions on Fifth, Shadyside, where “hats and fascinators are most welcome and encouraged.”

After a traditional toast to Her Most Gracious Majesty Queen Elizabeth II, Kathleen Dixon Donnelly will discuss the historic literary Bloomsbury Group. The influential set of early 20th-century writers, philosophers and artists, including novelist Virginia Woolf, met in the Bloomsbury section of London.

Anniversary events

On Sept. 3, two Britsburgh events will mark the 80th anniversary of Britain’s entry into World War II on Sept. 3, 1939.

From 10 to 11:30 a.m., Pittsburgh History & Landmarks Foundation representatives will lead “Gateway: Pittsburgh’s Renaissance after WWII,” a walking tour of 11 buildings that comprise the Pittsburgh Renaissance Historic District, added to the National Register of Historic Places in 2013.

At noon, Trinity Cathedral downtown will host “The World War II Hymns of Ralph Vaughan Williams,” celebrating the composer of hymns that helped strengthen British morale during the war.

Also from 6 to 9 p.m. that day, East End Brewing Co. will tap its “Tony Knipling Cask,” a specially brewed Britsburgh Ale named in memory of one of the originators of the Britsburgh Beer Society. Larder of East End, the restaurant within the brewery, will serve British food favorites bangers and mash and curried chips (fries).

Music and theater

Britsburgh’s special events include a Hartwood Acres Mansion and Garden Tour from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. Sept. 4, followed by a “Rip the Lid Off Trinity College Choir, Cambridge” lecture and demonstration by Alan Lewis, director of music at Calvary Episcopal Church, in advance of the choir’s Sept. 20 performance at the church.

Theatrical performances feature the Pittsburgh Savoyards with a preview of its upcoming production of a Gilbert and Sullivan comic opera, “Ruddigore,” on Sept. 4 at Lincoln Avenue Brewery; and The New Renaissance Theatre Company’s “A Midsommer Nights Dreame – Unrehearsed Shakespeare” on Sept. 6 on the lawn at Hartwood Acres mansion.

Also on Sept. 6, Britsburgh’s Commonwealth Dining Society will sponsor a buffet-style dinner at Duquesne University spotlighting foods of Caribbean nations that are members of the British Commonwealth of Nations. “Flavours of the Caribbean” will include a presentation on Caribbean cultures and traditions by Gerald Boodoo, director of the university’s Center for African Studies.

‘Very British’

Weekend family activities on Sept. 7 include the ancient English game stoolball, a forerunner of cricket and baseball, at Woodville Plantation; and A Very British Day Out III at Sewickley Heights History Center, with three-legged and sack races, welly (rubber boot) throwing and other games for kids and adults.

Sept. 8 will feature an Antiques Fair at Hartwood Acres Park Stable Complex, and at Woodville Plantation, Sunday Brunch with Britsburgh member and French and Indian War re-enactor Dave Frankowski, discussing Gen. John Forbes.

Some events are free; others require admission fees.

A full schedule of events is at britsburgh.com.