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About the Winchester and County Music Festival The Festival orginated from a meeting in the Winchester Guildhall on 30 September 1921 with the support of several distinguished musical personalities. It exists to give the opportunity to smaller local choirs to perform more-demanding works than they could undertake alone. The style of the Festival has changed over the years. Originally it was competitive, with school choirs included; but this section has been dropped. Nevertheless the characteristic enthusiasm has continued, resulting in limits being imposed on the number of performers permitted to take part. Furthermore, audience sizes for the adult choirs led to the expansion of the Guildhall in 1942, and in 1977 the growth in choir sizes led to the use of Romsey Abbey as well. The Compton & Shawford Festival Choir is the only society still in existence which performed in the first Festival, although Easton & Martyr Worthy (now known as the Itchen Valley Choral Society) and Winchester City joined the following year - followed by Botley in 1925. Photographs from the archives |
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