Valley Music, the festival event

This event was for people living in the river valleys of the Bourne and Test, east of Andover. We attracted some visitors from surrounding areas as well. This beautiful area in north Hampshire stretches from Longparish in the south and Vernham Dean in the north. Towns close to us are Andover and Whitchurch; further afield we have Winchester, Salisbury, Newbury and Basingstoke.

The event was for families and for all age groups. Folk inspired music incorporated music sung by local choirs, guest singers, bands and ensembles.

To illustrate the breadth of the festival content, musicians performed works from composers such as Joseph Canteloube (e.g. Chants d' Auvergne) and Dave Shepherd (e.g. Origin of the World). The immediate focus, during Friday's program, was upon English music then broadened throughout Saturday so that the Sunday program included world music. This developed the repertoire to include performances and workshops that appealed to children and young people but which also enriched the festival for everyone. Prices were competitive whilst many events were free.

There were workshops for children as well as adults and very good children's price tickets and opportunities for free entry throughout the event. The venues for the workshops and the performances were the Village Centre, the village school, a concert tent sited near the war memorial and the Parish Church. Festival site maps were available and the website and the information point at the festival did their best to help people find where they were.

There was a car park and interestingly we discovered that a large proportion of the festival goers were very local, as most people seemed to have walked! The pubs, the Coronation Arms and the George Inn had Morris men and women and from what we could see they were very busy indeed. Buskers played in gardens and this was a very important part of the festival and something that everyone enjoyed.

The church is an important building in St Mary Bourne and our bell ringers contributed magnificently to the event. There was good food and drink available at the festival and an exhibition about Hampshire's singing history together with talks about that as well as about how music has travelled from the British Isles to the Appalachian Mountains in the USA.