Newbury Spring Festival is one of the most popular and successful music festivals in the South of England. Over the last 40 years the Festival has grown hugely in size and quality building up a reputation of international status. The very best young musical stars appear alongside some of the world’s most distinguished and famous names. Here’s a short video to show you more of what the Festival has to offer:

This year’s Festival again opens with a Parade, produced by the same team which brought such pleasure and community involvement to Newbury last year. I am so grateful to Greenham Trust for their support of this project as well as of so much else that we do. I am also grateful to our numerous other sponsors, who are mostly generous private individuals, and of course to our Festival Friends and our many volunteers who all ensure the Festival’s continuing success, now in its 47th year.

I am delighted that we will be visiting St Nicolas Church five times this year: it’s our main concert hall with an excellent acoustic, and I look forward to welcoming back London Mozart Players, Philharmonia Orchestra in their 80th anniversary year, Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra, our own Festival Chorus, and for the first time Berkshire Youth Symphony Orchestra, which adds a new dimension to our aims of showcasing youthful musical talent and building links into the local community within our international programme of world-class music.

There is so much to look forward to this year, and I hope that as you look through the following pages you will notice the number of diverse events, from many different genres including jazz, musical theatre, cabaret, world music, folk music, choral music, ballet, chamber music, solo recitals, brass bands and gospel choirs, all of the highest quality and presented at affordable prices. Thank you to all our venues, St Nicolas Church, Corn Exchange, and to our many beautiful local venues, the rural churches and private houses which welcome us each year to enjoy this beautiful part of England.

Please join me in looking forward to another glorious fortnight of world-class music, with much to enjoy for everyone!

Mark Eynon, Festival Director