Dear Editor,
The Stroud Hotel hosted the Stroud Arts Festival launch.
The 78th staging of the festival starts this weekend. Guests, including Stroud’s Mayor, Cllr Tony Davey, and Deputy Mayor, Cllr Susan Fenton, plus local business people, venue managers, artists and other festival organisers – gathered at The Stroud to celebrate Stroud Arts Festival’s longstanding success as one of the oldest festivals in the UK and to preview what’s on offer during this October.
Jon Collins, as Chair, introduced the Festival, its aims and activities and the key players in the team, and showed video highlights from last year’s events.
Dave Ayre, Artistic Director, outlined this season’s Autumn programme and gave some information about plans for Spring/Autumn ‘25 and the build up to the 80th Festival in 2026.
Author and broadcaster, Anthony Burton – a Stroud resident for some 20 years and still writing at 90 years of age – will feature in the Re-Connected concert in the Sub Rooms on Thursday 24 October. At the reception Mr Davey spoke about his affection for Stroud, its fascinating heritage, the abundance of creativity and its interesting people and treated the guests to a recently written sample of verse ahead of the concert .
Dave Ayre and Rebekah Allan played a selection of music to give guests an idea of the breadth of musical genres covered by Stroud Arts Festival, aiming to bring the classical, traditional arts to Stroud, but with a twist of something new. Guests enjoyed the live music – along with the excellent canapes served at The Stroud!
Festival events and ticket information here
https://stroudartsfestival.org/events
Jennifer Greenshields
Stroud Arts Festival
