It’s the picture of the year for me – the name of our parish in lights above a Moscow cinema. When the ‘Oasis Knebworth 1996’ film screened in cinemas worldwide in September, it was thrilling to see messages sent from all around the world from people visiting Knebworth Park in their local cinemas. I don’t even know where ‘Zapopan, Jalisco’ is! But they know where Knebworth is.
I can’t think of another English village that has as much worldwide recognition as Knebworth. Stratford-upon-Avon’s a town, Glastonbury’s a town… possibly Haworth, home of the Brontës? Perhaps St Mary Mead, the fictional home of Miss Marple? Maybe the villages in the county of Midsomer? But better to be known for music than murders.
In 2022 our village will be ‘trending’ again, when Oasis’s singer Liam Gallagher returns to Knebworth Park in June. It will be our first ‘headline’ concert (as opposed to music festival) since the Red Hot Chili Peppers ten years ago, and the first to use our unique single-stage six-figure capacity since Robbie Williams almost twenty years ago. So look out 2022 – and Zapopan, Jalisco – Knebworth’s back calling the world.
Henry Lytton Cobbold
@HenryCobboldKH
