The Marette School of Dancing, Bosham, participating in Group Ballet class at the Lancastrian School during the Fifth Annual Chichester Music Festival, October 1959.
Our History
For 70 years, the Chichester Festival for Music, Dance and Speech has provided a platform on which thousands of singers, musicians, dancers, actors and public speakers have had the opportunity to demonstrate and grow their skills. Many have gone on to build careers in their chosen profession.
Our events take place in a range of venues in the Chichester area and our adjudicators are chosen for their expertise, their ability to empathise and establish a rapport with performers and their sense of fun. We aim to make our Festival a welcoming, inclusive and positive experience for all participants, our team of volunteers and the members of the public who attend our events.
“Judging by the talent that is evident in the area and the keenness of the organizers, there is no doubt the Festival should go from strength to strength.”
The Festival has a rich history going back to 1955. It was then that Robert (Bob) Davies (1887 - 1990), choirmaster at Southgate Church and founder and conductor of the Southgate Augmented Choir (later becoming the Davies Oratorio Choir), launched a revival of Chichester’s annual music festival. Dating from 1862 and originally known as the Annual Festival of the Association of Parochial Choirs, the festival ceased in 1945.
Together with Margaret Pink, the musical director and conductor of the Chichester Amateur Operatic Society, Bob set about financing the Festival with a jumble sale, tea parties and other events. In total, £130 was raised – equivalent to around £3800 today.
The Festival opened with 94 classes covering music, elocution and dancing, with fifteen cups and trophies to be awarded. The venue was decided to be the newly opened Lancastrian Boys’ School on Basin Road, now Chichester High School. The school hall was amongst the finest in the area, seating 450 people at any one time. Four adjudicators were selected: Ernest Reed and Cyril Winn for music, Laura Webster for elocution and Doreen Austin for dancing.
The First Annual Chichester Music Festival was held on Monday, 31 October and Tuesday, 30 November 1955. The classes extended over twelve hours each day, with 268 competitors and more than 2000 spectators across the two-day period. While the attendance was encouraging, the quality of performance exceeded all expectations, with one adjudicator commenting: "judging by the talent that is evident in the area and the keenness of the organizers, there is no doubt the Festival should go from strength to strength."
Preparations were already underway for the Second Annual Chichester Music Festival. The Lancastrian Boys’ School was already booked for the 30 and 31 October 1956, this time with additional rooms to accommodate the enormous number of entrants expected for the following year. The adjudicators for the music classes were Dr Eric Thiman, well-known composer and organist, and Dr Douglas Hopkins, late organist of Canterbury Cathedral; for the elocution classes, Gwenda Sayre, London; for the dancing classes, Helen Wingrave, London; and for the essay class, a new class with two entries only, the County Librarian, the Rev H. K. G. Bearman.
“The aim of the Festival is to give people, particularly the young, a platform to enjoy performing in public with a little competition thrown in, and, above all, we must always be a happy and friendly festival.”
Twelve new trophies were added in 1956, including the Joyce Foote Cup for piano recitals under 10 years of age, named after acclaimed local pianist, CAOS accompanist and Committee member Joyce Foote. Being one of the most proactive Committee members with a particular interest in the piano section, Joyce would go on to take over the chairmanship of the Committee from Margaret Pink in 1959, a post that she would hold until 1993.
As predicted, the Festival did indeed go from strength to strength. By 1959, the Fifth Annual Chichester Music Festival had attracted more than 900 entries - hundreds more than any previous year.
By this point, the Festival was hosted by both the Lancastrian Boys’ and Girls’ Schools, with a third venue being seriously considered by the Committee in light of the growing popularity of the Festival. Competitors were coming from as far afield as Portsmouth, Southampton, Worthing, and Midhurst. Additionally, a number of new trophies were presented, bringing the total of cups and other major awards to more than 50.
The original founders of the Festival have been recognized for their contribution to local performing arts. Bob Davies received the Queen’s Maundy Money at Chichester Cathedral in 1986, while Joyce Foote was awarded an MBE in 2005 for services to music in West Sussex. She finally retired from Festival duties in 2009, after 16 years as President of the Festival. Many of the founding committee members, participants and sponsors are remembered today through the trophies and awards given out every year to our class winners.