Editing Chester (section)

==Culture==
[[File:Louise Rayner Chester Eastgate Street.jpg|thumb|Eastgate Street painted by [[Louise Rayner]], {{Circa|1880}}]]
The major museum in Chester is the [[Grosvenor Museum]], which includes a collection of Roman tombstones and an [[Art museum|art gallery]]. Associated with the museum is a building on 20 Castle Street that has rooms furnished in different historical styles.<ref name="The Grosvenor Museum"/> The Dewa Roman Experience has hands-on exhibits and a reconstructed Roman street. One of the blocks in the forecourt of Chester Castle houses the [[Cheshire Military Museum]].<ref name="Cheshire Military Museum"/>

The £37m [[Storyhouse]] arts centre opened in the city centre in 2017. It includes a theatre, cinema, restaurant and the city's main library. It is housed in the city's remodelled 1936 Odeon Cinema and replaces the [[Gateway Theatre (Chester)|Gateway Theatre]] and the former library on Northgate Street.

Chester Little Theatre is based in Newtown and run by Chester Theatre Club. It generally stages 5 or 6 plays each year.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.chestertheatreclub.co.uk/#about.html |title=Chester Theatre Club website |access-date=21 October 2010 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100830042150/http://www.chestertheatreclub.co.uk/#about.html |archive-date=30 August 2010 |url-status=live }}</ref> Chester Music Theatre is based in a converted church in Boughton. There was a multiplex cinema and a ten-pin bowling alley at Greyhound Retail Park on the city's edge, but these have closed. The cinema has moved to Broughton, just over the border in North Wales.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.chesterchronicle.co.uk/news/chester-cheshire-news/broughton-cineworld-prepares-open-doors-9205500 |title=Broughton Cineworld prepares to open its doors |author=Michael Green |date=7 May 2015 |work=chesterchronicle |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150728132144/http://www.chesterchronicle.co.uk/news/chester-cheshire-news/broughton-cineworld-prepares-open-doors-9205500 |archive-date=28 July 2015 }}</ref> A new [[Picturehouse Cinemas|Picturehouse]] multi-screen cinema is being built in the city centre as part of the Northgate Project, due for completion in 2022. Chester has its own film society, several amateur dramatic societies and theatre schools.

The Grove area of Chester is home to a Grade II-listed bandstand built in 1913. A programme of afternoon performances runs every weekend and Bank Holiday from May to August each year, usually including brass bands, choirs, jazz, blues, and acoustic performers. The current Bandstand Coordinator is Luke Moore, who was appointed in 2018 and has expanded the programme to include a mixture of visual art, theatre, poetry, and community events alongside a variety of musical performances.

[[Grosvenor Park Open Air Theatre]], founded in 2010, is the only site-specific professional open-air theatre company outside London. It has an eight-week annual summer repertory season.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.grosvenorparkopenairtheatre.co.uk|title=Grosvenor Park Open Air Theatre|access-date=14 November 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190922074444/https://www.grosvenorparkopenairtheatre.co.uk/|archive-date=22 September 2019|url-status=live}}</ref>

To the east side of the city is [[Chester Zoo]], the UK's largest [[zoo]] with over 11,000 animals in 110 acres of award-winning gardens.

Numerous pubs, nightclubs, and bars, some of which are located in medieval buildings, populate the city. One such example is [[Quaintways]].

===Music===
Chester has had a professional classical music festival – the Chester Summer Music Festival, beginning in 1967 and regularly since 1978. The festival went into liquidation<ref>Michael Green, Chester Chronicle. [http://www.chesterchronicle.co.uk/chester-news/local-chester-news/2012/09/05/chester-festivals-organisation-goes-into-voluntary-liquidation-59067-31774900/ "Chester Festivals organisation goes into voluntary liquidation "] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130525222352/http://www.chesterchronicle.co.uk/chester-news/local-chester-news/2012/09/05/chester-festivals-organisation-goes-into-voluntary-liquidation-59067-31774900/ |date=25 May 2013 }}, ''[[The Chester Chronicle]]'', Chester, 5 September 2012. Retrieved on 30 March 2013.</ref> in 2012. A major new music festival was launched in March 2013 (previously known as Chester Performs<ref>Chester Performs. [http://www.chesterperforms.com/blog/mbna-chester-music-festival-on-sale/ "MBNA Chester Music Festival on Sale"] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150510214610/http://www.chesterperforms.com/blog/mbna-chester-music-festival-on-sale/ |date=10 May 2015 }}, ''Chester Performs'', Chester, 15 March 2013. Retrieved on 30 March 2013.</ref>), running annually every summer. The Chester Music Festival features the professional music group ''Ensemble Deva'' led by Giovanni Guzzo and Music Director Clark Rundell. Ensemble Deva regularly features soloists and section leaders from the country's leading symphony orchestras, including Liverpool Philharmonic, the Hallé and Manchester Camerata.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.chesterchronicle.co.uk/whats-on/music/chester-cathedral-host-manchester-camerata-9595311 |title=Chester Cathedral to host Manchester Camerata and Chester Festival Chorus |last=Green |first=Michael |website=chesterchronicle |access-date=17 March 2016 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160324101115/http://www.chesterchronicle.co.uk/whats-on/music/chester-cathedral-host-manchester-camerata-9595311 |archive-date=24 March 2016 }}</ref>

The composer [[Howard Skempton]] was born in Chester in 1947.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://global.oup.com/uk/music/dance/skempton/|title=OUP: Howard Skempton|work=oup.com|access-date=26 February 2015|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150226163926/http://global.oup.com/uk/music/dance/skempton/|archive-date=26 February 2015|url-status=live}}</ref>

Chester has a brass band that was formed in 1853. It was known as the Blue Coat Band and today as The City of Chester Band.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.chesterbrass.co.uk |title=City of Chester Band website |access-date=10 July 2007 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070607121731/http://www.chesterbrass.co.uk/ |archive-date=7 June 2007 |url-status=live }}</ref> It is a third section brass band with a training band. Its members wear a blue-jacketed uniform with an image of the Eastgate clock on the breast pocket of the blazer.

Chester Music Society was founded in 1948 as a small choral society. It now encompasses four sections: The Choir has 170 members drawn from Chester and the surrounding district; The Youth Choirs support three choirs: Youth Choir, Preludes, and the Alumni Choir; Celebrity Concerts promote a season of six high-quality concerts each year; The club is a long established section which aims to encourage young musicians and in many cases offers the first opportunity to perform in public.

The Chester Philharmonic Orchestra (CPO) was founded in 1884 and is one of the premier non-professional orchestras in North West England. Formerly the Chester Orchestral Society, it performs music from a vast repertoire. The Orchestra is a registered charity and usually performs four or five concerts each year (including an annual carol concert) in the magnificent setting of Chester's ancient Cathedral under the direction of well-known professional conductors.

Telford's Warehouse, Alexander's Jazz Bar and The Live Rooms are the city's leading live music venues.

An annual popular music festival started in 2011 called Chester Rocks. It is held on the grounds of the Chester Racecourse.

The founder members of the band [[River City People]] (guitarist Tim Speed and his drummer brother Paul Speed) are from Chester. They had a number of hits in the early 1990s. Later into the same decade, [[Mansun]] formed in the city after singer Paul Draper met guitarist Dominic Chad whilst working in the local former Fat Cat Bar. More recently, [[Shy and the Fight]], featuring Chester-based musicians, has achieved national attention via airplay on [[BBC Radio 1|Radio 1]] and [[BBC Radio 2|Radio 2]], also appearing at [[Wychwood]] and [[Sŵn|Swn]] festivals. Other bands that have gone on to achieve a degree of success outside of the city include The Suns, The Wayriders, Motion Empire, Casino and Face Of Christ and The Lovelies.

===Media===
Chester's newspapers include the weekly paid-for ''[[Chester Chronicle]]'' and freesheet ''[[Chester Standard]]''. The ''[[Chester Evening Leader]]'' and ''[[Midweek Chronicle]]'' are no longer in publication.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.chesterchronicle.co.uk/news/chester-cheshire-news/chester-daily-newspaper-prints-final-14116269|title=Chester daily newspaper prints final edition|first=Michael|last=Green|date=5 January 2018|access-date=30 September 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180911232047/https://www.chesterchronicle.co.uk/news/chester-cheshire-news/chester-daily-newspaper-prints-final-14116269|archive-date=11 September 2018|url-status=live}}</ref>

[[Dee 106.3|Chester's Dee Radio]] is the city's radio station, with [[Heart North West]], [[Capital North West and Wales]] and [[BBC Radio Merseyside]] also broadcasting locally. [[Lache FM]] is currently Chester's only Community radio station.

Television in Chester is served by ''[[BBC North West Tonight]]'' and ''[[ITV Granada Reports]] '', and with its close proximity to North Wales, viewers can also receive ''[[BBC Wales Today]]'' and ''[[Wales at Six|ITV News Wales at Six]] ''. Chester is where [[Channel 4]]'s soap opera ''[[Hollyoaks]]'' is set (although most filming takes place around Liverpool).

===In literature===
[[Lydia Sigourney]] gives her impressions of the city in her poem ''Chester'' published in ''Pleasant Memories of Pleasant Lands'', 1842. These relate to her visit to this country from America in 1840.<ref>{{cite web| last =Sigourney|first=Lydia|title=Pleasant Memories of Pleasant Lands| url=https://play.google.com/books/reader?id=6QZaAAAAMAAJ&pg=GBS.PA28| year=1842 |publisher=James Munroe and Company}}</ref>