These are challenging times. Like everyone else I have felt the ever increasing financial doom break over our lives, dampen spirits and squash expectations. I too have listened endlessly to reports of banks putting livelihoods in jeopardy and witnessed with a sinking heart the knock-on effect throughout the West Midlands, as savings and jobs alike have disappeared.
I have spent a lot of time wondering what place festivals have during times like this, not least because someone said to me last November “we are all waiting for the Lichfield Festival to make us feel better”.
These are challenging, difficult times indeed, and during difficult times, people need beautiful things. Ideally people need beautiful things in beautiful places and, even more ideally, people need concentrated bursts of beautiful things full of fun and discovery. Festivals, with their excitement, intensity and variety, with their balance of accessibility and value for money, are therefore needed more at times like this than at almost any other.
Festivals offer us the chance to share with family and friends the vibrancy of the arts and the thrill of live performance. They are rare opportunities to have expectations and perceptions challenged, whether that is the familiar in unfamiliar places, or the usual in unusual ways. Festivals are about the extraordinary, about experiencing the unexpected, about being amongst the lucky few who were “there”, and to entertain, surprise and delight, often leaving memories that last for years.
I may no longer have any idea how much my house is worth, but I will never forget the time I saw three completely different performances in one evening at a festival in Australia. I am regularly transfixed by my memory of suddenly remembering where I was, having been totally captivated by the magic of theatre. I treasure every day a piece of art hanging in my living room that I bought from the first Lichfield Festival I visited not longer after moving to the West Midlands eight years ago. While the temptation for many during difficult times will be to stay at home and save their pennies, this is the cultural equivalent of surrounding yourself in cotton wool. Getting out from in front of the TV to see live performance and to share that live performance with other people is one of the best investments you can ever make, especially during times of hardship.
This is because you are investing in who you are and in your future memories, and that is something that the banks can never touch.
I regularly witness the transformational impact of arts. I’ve seen audiences spellbound, balanced on that knife edge of incredulity mixed with rapture. I have seen audiences not able to speak after being touched by music in ways defying their expectations, and I regularly get letters from people who just cannot get memorable Lichfield Festival events out of their minds. These are the experiences and the memories that we should seek, and the opportunities we should grasp.
Festivals like the Lichfield Festival offer plenty of opportunities like these. We have been bringing the very best of national and international arts to Lichfield and the region for nearly 30 years. Lichfield in the summer is a beautiful place, and the 2009 Lichfield Festival once again offers an enormous variety of beautiful things.
It is not every day you get the opportunity to hear Tchaikovsky’s second piano concerto performed live, let alone with one of the UK’s leading orchestras in a beautiful medieval cathedral. The rare privilege of hearing an ex-member of Deep Purple perform in an intimate setting does not come around often, let alone the chance to hear him speak about his inspirations for an hour. And how many times have you been given the chance to watch black and white silent films while listening to eight people play the ukulele?
Festivals are also about trying something new, and giving something a go that perhaps you would not consider on another occasion. These types of events, often the hidden gems found in the corners of festival programmes, help to create that infectious mix of buzz and anticipation that only festivals have. How about trying a mind-bending explosion of storytelling, singing, virtuoso cello playing and sonic wizardry; or a re-imagining of what music might have been like in 16th-century Goa; or hearing the front man of a Mercury Prize-nominated pop band improvising at the piano; or even a lecture about intelligent wallpaper that changes colour if you become angry?
For families that are seeking an opportunity to spend memorable time together, seek out Dreamfighter, a major new commission based on children’s stories by British author Ted Hughes; or children’s film including Japanese animation and a rare screening of The Red Balloon from France; or terrifying ghost stories from England and Japan. Alternatively, join the 8,000 people who spend an afternoon relaxing in Lichfield’s glorious Beacon Park before the annual Festival Fireworks.
There are many ways to get more from your festival experience. There are free talks with visiting artists so you can find out what goes on behind the scenes. You can even get behind the scenes yourself by being part of the team of volunteers. Or if you feel your rightful place is on the stage, the Lichfield Festival Chorus, an intergenerational community choir in only its second outing, will be performing with gospel choir Black Voices. This year, for the first time, will also see a string of free events dotted throughout the festival, so keep your eyes peeled for when they get announced.
The 2009 Lichfield Festival is a chance to celebrate the creative endeavours of artists and entertainers from around the world, to experience the vibrancy of arts with family and friends, to laugh and cry, to cheer and applaud and to invest in tomorrow’s memories.
With over 70 events in 11 venues welcoming 400 artists from ten countries, memories from the Lichfield Festival are ripe for the picking this summer.
So come on, jump into Lichfield Festival with both feet and we’ll see you here in July.
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