{"id":2595,"date":"2021-03-28T11:19:04","date_gmt":"2021-03-28T11:19:04","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/romseyfestival.org\/festival2021\/?page_id=2595"},"modified":"2022-01-30T14:54:00","modified_gmt":"2022-01-30T14:54:00","slug":"festival_history","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/romseyfestival.org\/festival2021\/festival_history\/","title":{"rendered":"The History of Romsey Festival"},"content":{"rendered":"

The first Romsey Arts Festival took place in 1987 and has been held every three years since then. This is how it came about.<\/em><\/p>\n

As most people know, the best ideas come without warning. For Pam Gale, then Mayor of Romsey, it was a shaft of sunlight and a choir on particularly good form that led to a moment of pure inspiration: \u201cI was listening to the Abbey service one evening in 1984 with sunlight pouring through the windows and I was suddenly struck by the choir\u2019s talent.\u201d<\/p>\n

A chance meeting with the churchwarden led to a discussion about the artistic prowess in the town as a whole, and so the idea of harnessing Romsey\u2019s love of the arts was born.<\/p>\n

The first Romsey Arts Festival was held three years later in 1987, attracting star performers like the violinist Nigel Kennedy.<\/p>\n

But Pam says the aim has always been for professionals and amateurs to share a platform, encouraging the younger talent. She cites the ladies\u2019 choir Sing Something Simple and the Abbey choir.<\/p>\n

Many participants in earlier Festivals have gone on to reach the top of their profession, including flautist Sarah Bull, violinist Lizzie Greaves and Jadie Pearl who sang with the English National Opera.\u00a0But the balance of the line-up has changed in recent years, with sponsorship no longer readily available.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe can\u2019t hire professionals because we can\u2019t offer guarantees to sponsors,\u201d says Pam. \u201cThe forms always ask for Festival audience numbers, but how do you count the number of people who go to the Abbey to see the Quilters\u2019 exhibition for free?\u201d<\/p>\n

In fact, the Festival is almost unique in that no events are bought in. Performers and exhibitors arrange their own venues and are responsible for their own finances, with the Festival itself making no profit.\u00a0Pam is content that some \u2018niche\u2019 events might only attract an audience of a few dozen: \u201cThat\u2019s thirty people who wouldn\u2019t have gone otherwise. It really is to get the town expressing its love of the arts.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The first Romsey Arts Festival took place in 1987 and has been held every three years since then. This is how it came about. As most people know, the best ideas come without warning. For Pam Gale, then Mayor of Romsey, it was a shaft of sunlight and a choir on particularly good form that…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-2595","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/romseyfestival.org\/festival2021\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/2595","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/romseyfestival.org\/festival2021\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/romseyfestival.org\/festival2021\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/romseyfestival.org\/festival2021\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/romseyfestival.org\/festival2021\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2595"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/romseyfestival.org\/festival2021\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/2595\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3354,"href":"https:\/\/romseyfestival.org\/festival2021\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/2595\/revisions\/3354"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/romseyfestival.org\/festival2021\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2595"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}