History of Stevenage Festival

The Stevenage Arts Guild was founded in the 1950s to encourage, to sustain and to co-ordinate the amateur artistic endeavors of the Stevenage people.

In August 1992 a discussion took place and Roy Mugridge and Ron Walker agreed to set up an initial investigation into this and the festival was born, and the first festival proper, was run in 1994

It now runs every two years, and this will be the 8th festival.

A Few Words from Jane Tobitt, one of the major festival organisers :

"The Festival has gone from strength to strength since its first year in 1994. Then it was just for a week at the Gordon Craig. The second year was 2 weeks and had performances outside the GCT as well. This, the 8th Festival, almost everything on the main programme is back in the Gordon Craig Theatre with the exception of Parnassus Performance and Rock in the Park.

A couple of highlights for me were performances from The Stevenage Music and Art Centre and Fusion in 2002. The musicians gave us a rousing 'Last Night of the Proms' which ended with a long standing ovation from the audience, balloons from the ceiling of the auditorium and 500 Union Jacks being waved during 'Land of Hope and Glory'!!! Fusion Performing Arts gave us electrifying performances of 'West Side Story', full of raw emotions and wonderful talent.

In 2000, we had an hilarious comedy from the Knebworth Players - it was a Farndale Farce - the Farndale Townswomens' Guild Amateur Dramatic Society's 'Macbeth'. I had seen it before - but it still made me laugh out loud!"

 

Thirteen years on, Here's Looking forward to this year's highlights.