bafa at lfa

tonight is the annual dinner of the Lichfield Festival Association, and the guest speaker will be Stewart Collins, current Chairman of the British Arts Festivals Association, and Artistic Director of Henley Festival, artsfestival:chelsea and Holder's Season in Barbados.
Stewart visits Lichfield to talk about the vital importance, the extraordinary diversity, and current health of British festivals. As BAFA Chairman he's best placed to know, but he's also right in the middle of BAFA's spring road shows and has been visiting Presteigne, Bath, Leeds, Edinburgh over the last fortnight with Cambridge and Canterbury next week. BAFA is also visiting Birmingham at the end of the month for a Tourism Management Institute day conference.

Those sharp eyed among you will have also realised that Stewart (wearing his Chelsea hat) and I have been working together for the last three years on the Confluences project that culminates at both our festivals this year (as well as at Salisbury's).

I have also just remembered that I heard about the sad death of Humphrey Lyttelton just as the 2008 LFA Dinner finished. Touch wood...