Community Events
The Petworth Festival celebrates and addresses its charitable purposes by promoting free community events in and around Petworth, and by the development of young musicians and performers through relationships with national organisations and training bodies.
In 2023 our community and charitably-related events see:
- A visual arts pop-up in association with The Arts Society of West Sussex: a series of local schools present an extensive series of artworks created by years 4, 5 and 6 pupils. ‘Heads Up’ is one of this year’s featured projects which has been led by international sculptor Jon Edgar. With a number of the resulting ‘heads’ on show, Jon will open the exhibition on the Wednesday afternoon;
- Alice in Wonderland – the festival returns to the Coultershaw Heritage Site for two days of ‘promenade’ family theatre performances;
- Bad Dad – family theatre in the grounds of Bignor House;
- Lunchtime events presented in association with the Royal Academy of Music: four concerts featuring leading young musicians including a premiere of a festival commission – Bignor Hill by composer Ned Bigham – at Tillington and Graffham churches;
- A fourth year of Coffee Concerts featuring young performers selected by the music charity Live Music Now. LMN’s mission is to ensure that music is taken to audiences who don’t ordinarily have access to quality music, and the Festival will work with LMN to arrange ‘outreach concerts’ in pursuit of this aim;
- The continuation of a relationship involving young professional musicians supported by The Musicians’ Company;
- Jazz musicians from the Royal Academy of Music perform at the festival’s annual ‘Jazz in the Stables’ event in the grounds of Petworth House;
- A full evening concert celebrating the remarkable talents of senior students at the Yehudi Menuhin School;
- Free and subsidised tickets for young people will be available for most festival events.
Stewart Collins
Artistic Director
January 2022