Richmond upon Thames Performing Arts Festival
(1929-2017)
In 1929, when the organist, Mr. Tracey Arkell. at St Mary's Church in
Twickenham founded the Twickenham and Richmond Musical Festival,
little did he realise that it would evolve by 2015 into the Richmond
upon Thames Performing Arts Festival with nearly 2000 performers
and with over 40 sessions taking place annually in Richmond,
Twickenham, Kew, Hampton, Whitton and Barnes.
In the early days performers were mainly adult pianists and vocalists. By
1934 the popular Dancing section had been established and the Festival
affiliated to the British Federation.
In 2016 we have five sections, Stage
Dance. Speech & Drama, Piano, Vocal and Instrumental - each with its own
secretary, essential to deal with the large entry. There are many trophies
and prizes for each discipline , including substantial cash awards to help
with future training, as ninety per cent of the participants are now under 21
Richmond Festival has always attracted distinguished musicians as adjudicators. In the immediate pre- and postwar years, although the Festival was small, standards were high, as indeed they continue to be.
Armstrong Gibbs, Ernest Read, Adam Carse, and Herbert Howells were all
frequent members of the adjudicating panels. In 1961 Sir Malcolm Sargent
became President and the tradition of inviting eminent musicians continues to this
day as the recent former President is Lt. Col. Duncan, Beat, LVO, former Director
of the Kneller Hall School of Music and currently we now have opera singer, Hazel
Wood.
In 1968 with the founding of the London Borough of Richmond upon Thames, the
Festival became known as Richmond Music Festival but at the Millennium, in
recognition of the enormous contribution made by the Stage Dance and Speech &
Drama Sections, the name was changed once again to the present one.
Many now well-known musicians, dancers and actors have started their careers at Richmond Festival and have
their names engraved on some of the trophies. We try to offer performance opportunities for all ages in a
friendly, relaxed and informal setting, with high quality and sympathetic professional adjudicators commenting
on their work. Each performer receives a helpful written and verbal report.
The Festival has always been self-supporting, run by teams of dedicated volunteers and receiving no Council or
National grants. With much valued help from two local charitable trusts, Hampton Fuel Allotment Trust and the
David King Trust, generous Patrons and other donors, it has managed to keep fees at the lowest possible levels, so
there is no financial bar to entry. In these difficult economic times, these fees are becoming harder to maintain,
but a full programme has been arranged for 2017, the 83rd
Festival.
Details are available on
www.richmondfestival.org.uk or email info @richmondfestival.org.uk