CFMDS Chairman speaking at the Festival Gala Concert

Chairman’s WELCOME

It’s  been a very busy and successful period for the Festival, marked by strong performers participation, dedicated volunteer efforts, and proactive committee work. The 70th Annual Festival in 2025 was a significant milestone, and preparations on this event featured prominently in our activities.

Key Highlights

  • Successful 2025 Festival: The 2025 Festival saw a high number of entries from all our sections, totalling 1431 which took place this year from late January to March.

  • The Singing section was back at Christ Church, Chichester once again. The Choirs, Brass, orchestra, bands and percussion sections were held at St Paul’s Church for the first time with the larger performance area making a big difference for our bands, orchestras and choirs, some having more than 35 musicians for their performances.

  • Volunteers, including many from previous years, offered their help for the 2025 Festival, which was greatly appreciated. We are always looking for additional volunteers and potential committee members so please contact us if you are interested. 

  • Dance Section:
    Ahead of this year’s very special 70th CFMDS dance festival Angela Watkins wanted to let us know that she has made the difficult decision to step down as section leader following this year’s 2025 Festival. I would like to thankAngela on behalf of the trustees and committee for all the hard work she has put into this section over the last 5 years. With no dance section in 2018 & 2019, Angela re-started the dance section in 2020 and we have since seen a cumulative total of 3,060 entries over the last 5 years and have become an integral qualifying festival for the All England Dance competition. Well done Angela and THANK YOU! Now we must quickly find a new dance section leader capable of continuing Angela’s fantastic work!

  • AED UK Young Dancer sponsorship: Angela Watkins’ proposal to award sponsorship for the AED UK Young Dancer programme was approved by the Trustees and we are delighted to announce  Isabella Roa receiving this year's Young Dancer sponsorship which was presented to her at the Gala Concert held at the Chichester Minerva Theatre.

  • Gala Concert:
    It was great to have our Gala Concert back at the Minerva Theatre once again after missing out on 2024. A huge thank you to Mini, Jo, Chris and Emma for organising and running the Concert. We’ve had lovely feedback from many people that attended on how smoothly the concert went and the very high standard of the performances.

  • Certificates:  New Gold embossed 70th anniversary certificate designs were used at this years festival to reflect this special year, A big thank you to Chris Johnstone for the design input and Mary & Janet for producing the hundreds of certificates required.

  • 2026 Syllabus and Entries. Venues and revised syllabuses are now being prepared for our 2026 Festival which will be published on our website at the end of July. You will be able to make your entries from 1st September 2025.

Looking forward to seeing you all again in 2026.

Very best wishes,

Alan Rodger (Chair CFMDS)


 Section Quick Links

Brass

Orchestras & Bands
Percussion

Choirs

Classical Guitar

Dance

Organ

Pianoforte

Singing

Strings

Speech & Drama

Woodwind

 

Volunteers

Each year, the Chichester Festival for Music, Dance and Speech provides an opportunity for many hundreds of young people to perform in public and benefit from advice and encouragement from acknowledged experts in their field. Running the Festival is a complex, demanding task and fortunately, we have a committed, enthusiastic and capable team of volunteers, but we always need more help. If you would like to join our team, follow the link below to find out more about the roles that need performing.

Discover more about our adjudicators: