This year's Alderley Edge Festival is destined to be the best yet as it marks the 100th year of the existence of a festival in the village.
It is not the 100th Festival, as five years were missed during WWI, but it is nevertheless a very significant milestone in the history of not only the Festival, but of the village as a whole.
To celebrate the centenary a pre-festival concert will be held at Alderley Edge School for Girls on Saturday, May 7th. The concert will feature a number of past winners of the Festival including: violinist Rosy Williams, harpist Felicity Orme, Paul Exton-McGuinness who plays trombone, Helen Meadmore and the Just Midnight choir.
Three special competitions were also held to mark the centenary. Aspiring poets were invited to compose a poem of celebration to be performed at the 2011 Finalé, musicians were invited to compose a rousing fanfare to open the 2011 Finalé and all budding artists were offered the opportunity to design a special pin badge, using the existing logo.
The badge winner was Paul Robinson, from Year 4 at Pownall Hall School, his badge will be worn by over 2000 competitors who have entered the 2011 Festival.
Ben Clarke, the winner budding composer, will be opening the Finalé by playing his composition with a 10 piece band.
Ben said "In writing this fanfare I hoped to encapsulate the spirit and excitement of the Alderley Edge Festival and to commemorate its 100th Anniversary with a sense of drama and celebration. The fanfare is based largely upon the first three letters of the Alderley Edge Festival – A, E and F respectively and these notes permeate the work both harmonically and motivically.
"It was also a wish of mine when composing this piece to attempt to pay homage (if only in a small part) to Gustav Mahler. It was in fact on May 18th 1911 when Mahler died and so I have sought to embrace the '100 year' anniversaries of both the Alderley Edge Festival and Mahler's death by combining the notes A, E and F and alluding to – if not directly quoting, a few of Mahler's orchestral motifs!"
The winner of the poem, Cameron Shields, aged 9, from Pownall Hall School will be reading his poem also at the Finalé.
The Wind
Wind races with leaves
Wind destroys poor trees
Torments and whispers down your ear
Wind blows and throws bins
Fights rocking swings
Wind whips houses
Like a rider on his horse
Wind rattles the windows
and shakes the glass
Wind no longer throws bins
and blows things
Wind suddenly drops the leaves
Branches stop moving
Wind has gone.
The Alderley Edge Musical Festival Society came into existence in 1911 and back then there were 17 classes covering only music, with 264 entrants. By 1923 there were 623 entrants, by 1931 there were 1008 entrants, by 1946 there were 1105 entrants and by 1980 numbers had risen 1300 entrants.
In 2011, 100 years later, the Festival has 186 classes with over 2000 entrants which now includes speech and drama along with the music.
Keith Lowe, Festival Chairman said "We give our heartfelt thanks to those dedicated volunteers who started this journey; we have come a long way since, but like them, we still believe in the same ideal - that the youth of today are talented in the arts and will always have something to offer. This talent is in all of us, and if we can nurture even a small amount of that talent, then we are making a difference. It is this difference that keeps us working so hard to make the Festival what it is.
"To all of the performers over the years, we welcome your talent; to all the committees that have existed throughout our 100 years, and to all the thousands of volunteers over that time, we thank you all for helping us along our way. 2011 is the start of the next journey and to all those who will perform, be members of the committee and become volunteers over the next 100 years, we wish you all the best."
Tickets for the Alderley Edge Festival Centenary Concert priced at £8.00 (concessions £5.00) can be obtained by emailing Ann Hume, the Festival Secretary, or by calling 01625 532735. The concert starts at 7.30pm at Alderley Edge School for Girls on Saturday May 7th.
The 2011 Alderley Edge Festival will be held from Wednesday May 11th to Saturday 14th May. For further information and a full timetable of events visit the Alderley Edge Festival website.
