MESSAGE FROM THE CHAIRMAN:

Cancellation of Southampton Festival of Music and Drama 2025

 

We have taken the very difficult decision to cancel this years festival due to lack of entries. As you know, the festival is a very small charity run by a dedicated team of loyal volunteers. We receive absolutely no funding and so are dependent on making sure we cover our costs each year. This year with the low number of entries, if we were to run the festival we would have a shortfall of several thousand pounds.

 

We know you will be disappointed as you, your musical group or family member love the performing arts and the Festival is a wonderful opportunity to perform and get feedback from accredited adjudicators. 

 

For those of you who entered, our webmaster will be starting to process the refunds from Sunday. These will come straight back to you. However, if you feel able to gift your entry fee to the Festival to help us run Festival 2026, please let us know as we would very much appreciate it.

 

2026 is a special year – our founding year..

Next year Southampton Festival will be celebrating its centenary, with a big relaunch on the 21st March 2026. We are looking at the syllabus and will be widening the selection of classes to reflect the changing world of performing arts and music. During the year we will be looking for sponsorship so we can offer an exciting programme of events as well as our traditional offering. Our website will become bigger, better and more informative. We hope also to be able to give every entrant a commemorative medal to celebrate the occasion.

 

If you have any ideas or questions, please do not hesitate to contact me.

 

​MESSAGE FROM THE WEBMASTER:

I have begun the process of refunding entrants, minus those who have let us know that they wish to donate their entry fees. I expect this to take me around 1 week to get through everyone.

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Southampton Festival of Music and Drama was established in 1926, and has been providing a wide range of competitive music classes for both children and adults ever since. It has inspired the careers of many musicians and music teachers throughout the years and is a key landmark in the UK Festival Scene. Taking part in March at Thornden School, it attracts entrants from a wide area. Outstanding performances are selected for the Festival Concert which is held in Thornden Hall on a suitable date after the Festival is complete.

A Message from the Chairman

We are back at Thornden Hall as a live festival for 2025.

Festivals such as ours take a great deal of organising and would not happen without the work of our
dedicated section administrators, committee members and volunteers who give freely of their time to make
sure this event happens.

Once again thank you to everyone who has supported the Festival, especially over the last three years. I know
that with everyone’s enthusiasm for this amazing event and your continued support and help, we can look
forward knowing that future generations will gain as much enjoyment from the Festival as we have.

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The adult piano section adjudicator is now confirmed to be Mark Tanner.

Shelagh Lee