If your tastes lean more toward The Guardian than Glastonbury, check out the Port Eliot Festival in Cornwall, England, which hosts musical performances along with spoken word and film—and even an impromptu fashion show or two. Last year, Martin Scorsese curated the cinema program; this summer’s highlights include talks between filmmaker Stephen Frears and indie author Geoff Dyer (Paris Trance) and storytelling courtesy of Suggs, the frontman of Madness. (porteliotfestival.com; July 19–22)
Photography is everywhere—in churches, factories, castles—during Recontres d’Arles. The Provençal town Van Gogh made famous has become one of the premier international showcases for both emerging and seasoned talent; don’t miss “Gypsies, the End of the Journey,” Josef Koudelka’s intimate portraits of Roma culture shot in the sixties and seventies. (rencontres-arles.com; July 2–September 23)
Bradley Cooper, People magazine’s 2011 Sexiest Man Alive, ditches the golden-boy looks for some thespian cred by taking on the role of John Merrick, aka the Elephant Man, in the Williamstown Theatre Festival production of Bernard Pomerance’s 1977 classic. Indie stalwart Patricia Clarkson costars as the London actress who befriends him. (wtfestival.org; June 26–August 19)
