Sunday 25th July - Saturday 31st July 2010
Box Office: 01263 712635 open Monday - Saturday 10.00am - 2.00pm
E-mail: enquiry@holtsummerfestival.org
Programme Introduction
I have lived just outside Holt for ten years and I can’t remember a time when the town was as bustling and vibrant as it was during last year’s inaugural Holt Summer Festival. In programming this year’s festival I have tried to build upon the success of 2009, learn from the mistakes and create an event which will cement the town’s rapidly growing reputation for supporting the arts in every genre.
I’m not sure how valuable it is to pick out my favourite events, on the basis that since I chose them I should stand by all of them! It is worth pointing out, however, that the success of last year’s Festival has enabled us to engage a wider selection of truly international acts – obvious examples being Martin Taylor and The Academy of St Martin in the Fields. But, more importantly, I am pleased that we seem to have achieved the sort of balance across the art forms that was such a feature of last year’s Festival.
I have added certain structures to the programming this year with two strands; anniversaries and plucked instruments. It is by no means the only way to programme a festival, but there are so many interesting anniversaries in 2010 that it made sense to incorporate them. The plucked instrument strand was based on the fact that I wanted to celebrate the centenary of the birth of Django Reinhardt – when we secured Martin Taylor’s Sprit of Django, it was a straightforward decision to create a strand that includes the gifted young lutenist Matthew Wadsworth as well as Dave Kelly and Tom McGuinness from The Blues Band and the legendary Mick Taylor, arguably the Rolling Stone’s finest guitarist.
A lot of people commented to me last year that they had enjoyed new artists and events that were not part of their previous experience, and surely this is a really important aspect of any arts festival. Of course you will be buying tickets for acts that you know, or have heard of, but I would encourage you to try something that is new to you - it's one evening out of your life, on the doorstep and affordable.
By the time you read this we will have a new government and it doesn’t take a crystal ball to predict that despite the protestations of all parties and the fact that the arts in this country attract income far in excess of their funding, this funding will be increasingly at risk. I don’t believe in moaning about this - life is too short - but I do believe in the inescapable truth that the arts enrich the lives of everyone and we in Holt are, in our small way, underlining that truth.
