Welcome to the Home of Highbridge Festival of the Arts

“The friendly festival”

The Festival is affiliated to The British & International Federation of Festivals for Music, Dance and Speech of which Her Majesty The Queen is patron
The Festival is a registered charity, number 284082
Presidents: Nigel Hess, Composer & Stephen Daldry CBE, Film & Stage Director
The Festival began in 1948 at Highbridge Town Hall. It has grown from an afternoon of performances to a large event held over 12 days in three different venues with over 2300 performances in Speech & Drama, Dance and Music. Performers are adjudicated by professional adjudicators, who are recognised by The Federation, and marks are awarded using nationally recognised standards.
We welcome performers of all ages and abilities to take part in a wide variety of classes; from tiny tots to octogenarians, everyone is encouraged to share their talents, whether they wish to recite a poem, act in a play, dance in any number of styles, play an instrument or sing, either as a soloist or with others.
Please explore our website to find out more about the different sections of The Festival. The Syllabus will give you an idea about the breadth of classes you can take part in. If you’re thinking of taking part in Highbridge Festival for the first time, then please read or download our Information Sheet. Do please contact us if you have any questions or would like more information.
We look forward to welcoming you to our next Festival, either as a performer or as a member of the audience, when we can assure you of a very entertaining time.
 

New Speech & Drama Secretary

Sue Walton, who has been organising the Speech & Drama Section of our Festival for the past 5 years, has relinquished the reins following this year’s successful event which saw nearly 600 performances in two days. We would like to take this opportunity to thank Sue for her hard work on behalf of the Festival and for encouraging schools to become increasingly involved in the Choral Speech classes.
We now welcome Dawn Rose as our new Speech & Drama Secretary. Dawn has been a Secondary School Drama Teacher in Somerset for the last 10 years. She has a passion for Speech and Drama giving all age groups a chance to perform. She is very keen to develop the Speech and Drama classes to encourage even more people to participate in our Festival.

Syllabus

We are busy preparing our Syllabus for the 2018 Festival, which runs from Monday 5 – Saturday 17 March. If you are on our mailing list, then please look out for your Syllabus towards the end of October. The Syllabus will also be published on our website at the end of October.

Adjudicators

We are delighted that our adjudicators for the 2018 Festival will be:
Speech & Drama         Jonathan Owen
Dance                        Claire Jennings
Music Instrumental      Elizabeth Brazier
Music Vocal                 Frith Trezevant

Closing date for entries
We have changed the closing date for entries for the 2018 Festival. The deadline for receipt of entries will be 31st December 2017.