This May sees the 250th anniversary of the second longest running music festival in England (after the Three Choirs Festival). During that time it has taken many forms, sometimes struggling to survive, and at others offering a plethora of events. This year it has revived again after Covid lockdown, with over 100 performances and events spread over 17 days in May.
From sermon to concert
There is a long tradition of music in Norwich, and a host of choirs and performing groups still thrive in the city. The first amateur music society was formed In 1724, when Norwich was still the second largest city in England.
In 1772, it was proposed to raise funds for a new Norfolk and Norwich hospital with a guest “sermon” in the Cathedral during Assize Week, when Norwich was at its busiest. Musical performances were added before and after the sermon itself, and they rapidly became the main attraction.
By 1788 it had grown into a three day musical festival with sacred music in the Cathedral and secular music in St Andrew’s Hall, a former Benedictine monastery, which remains the centre of the festival’s big music events. Over the next century the musical performances expanded, with star performers from London and beyond appearing, alongside local musicians and choirs. The repertoire, which began with much Handel, expanded, often as extracts from major works, as well as the large-scale oratorios which have always formed the staple of British choral music.
A landmark festival occurred in 1824 when the festival became a triennial event, its patrons included the King, and the Duke of Sussex attended. 300 people were turned away when the hall had admitted 2000 people (today its limit is 900!). Observing that there were many men sitting when ladies were standing, the Duke of Sussex gave up his chair and sat on the floor “to much applause”.
The 20th century
For most of the 20th century the festival remained a largely musical event. In 1906 Sir Henry Wood, founder of the Proms, became the lead conductor, introducing much new music to the repertoire. The Festival commissioned original works from leading composers, including Ralph Vaughan Williams, Edward Elgar, Gustav Holst, and Benjamin Britten, who attributed his first interest in music to festival performances.
The centenary of the 1824 festival was marked with a number of “firsts”. Norwich had its first woman Mayor, and a woman appeared on the podium for the first time, when Dame Ethyl Smyth conducted two of her own works. It also boasted the festival’s largest choir ever, with 720 singers on stage, while, to take the music to the whole city, the themes of the main work were played by trumpets and trombones from the roof of the hall.
Diversifying and expanding
After a tentative start in the 1950s, art and craft exhibitions were added to the festival in the 1960s. In 1988 the festival became an annual, rather than triennial, event, and it began to expand, in the number and range of venues, events and activities. Jazz, folk and more exotic forms were added to the classical music repertoire. A host of non-musical performances, exhibitions, tours, talks and events have been added. Street theatre appeared, with tightrope walkers, acrobats, dragons breathing fire and stilt walkers wandering through the city centre. The number of venues has now grown to over 20 locations in Norwich, as well as events in Great Yarmouth and Houghton Hall on the North coast. Landmark opening events have included open air concerts and firework displays, and this year a line of falling dominoes winding through the city centre.
Norwich is a UNESCO City of Literature, known for its writing and storytelling, and the festival includes a City of Literature Weekend, with a dozen readings, workshops and lectures. Many open-air events take place In Chapelfield Gardens, where the richly decorated Adnams Spiegeltent provides a venue for cabaret, circus, jazz and folk music and tea dances, as well as talks.
Returning from lockdown
This year the festival has revived after Covid lockdown. The 100 plus activities include 30 musical performances, 15 exhibitions, plus cabaret, circus, talks, guided walks and outdoor events. The Garden Party weekend provides free open air performances, with a range of food and drink.
In keeping with the tradition, the festival has commissioned new work, including Arun Ghosh’s haunting setting of St Francis’ Canticle of the Sun. And it will close with one old one: Vaughan Williams’ “disgusting” “Five Tudor Portraits”.
After two years of lockdown, this year’s festival is a welcome return to something like normality. A long way from a guest sermon with a fundraising collection at the door. It will be interesting to speculate on how it evolves over the next 250 years!
Rob Mitchell’s history “Festival for a Fine City: 250 years of the Norfolk and Norwich Festival“ was published in May 2022.
