OUR HISTORY

As early as 1872 there are records of amateur festivals, in just the same format as we know them today, taking place across Britain. The 1870s was a time of competition and the birth of these "competition festivals", as they were called, tied in with a lot of other important births - the Football Association being born in 1873; Wimbledon in 1877; and Test Matches in 1878.

This spirit of competition spilled over into the arts, and local events sprang up spontaneously. Some years later, at a first meeting of The British Federation of Festivals, Walford Davies was to say that these festivals were born to satisfy peoples need to "pace themselves on the road to excellence".

The first recorded festival was the Workington Festival in Cumbria; still running to this day. Meanwhile, in London, John Curwen had taken up the idea of the National Music Meetings at the Crystal Palace to begin the Stratford and East London Festival in 1882 - another festival which still flourishes!

In 1904 Lady Mary Trefusis and Mary Wakefield held a successful meeting to form an "Association of Competition Festivals", inviting other interested parties - like Arthur Somervell and Henry Wood.

By 1907 the membership was over 70 affiliated festivals, many brought into being by famous names - like the Leith Hill Musical Festival, begun by Ralph Vaughan Williams in 1905.

By the time the Association became The British Federation of Festivals as we know it, in 1921, famous names abounded - Sir Edward Elgar, Sir Adrian Boult, Gustav Holst, Sir Granville Bantock, C Armstrong Gibbs - and their support was a vital factor in the strong start of the Festival Movement.