This year's Festival started on Saturday 12th May 2007 with Junior Vocal classes at the Riddings Hall, (Songs from the Shows, Folk Songs and senior Vocal Duets in the morning and afternoon).  Choristers from Bradford Cathedral Junior Choir performed in the evening, along with a group of guitar and harp entries and an organ soloist at All Saints Parish Church.

On Sunday 13th May, we were welcomed to All Saints Parish Church who this year hosted our Special Service of Rededication.

On Monday, 14th May, the Speech and Drama classes began at the Baptist Church and the Riddings Hall.  Especially gratifying is the continued support of inner city Bradford primary schools to the Verse-Speaking and Non-Christian Religious Reading classes of the Festival, involving as it now does not only Westbourne Primary School, (Manningham), but also Lilycroft and Margaret McMillan Primary Schools.

These are children whose horizons open no further than Listers’ Mill chimney and have no conception of what lies even a couple of miles beyond it, so riding through beautiful rural Yorkshire to lovely Ilkley and setting foot in a Christian church was a mind-boggling experience for them.

Theatre Time continues to pull in a number of entries across the two age ranges, which guaranteed an evening of great entertainment at the Riddings Hall on Monday and Tuesday night from 6.00 pm.

The results of the Poetry Writing competition were announced by the adjudicator, Pauline Kirk, and the winning poems and completed stories read.  A selection of the poems were on display throughout the week in the Lower Hall at Christchurch.  We are grateful for the continued support of BBC Radio Leeds, who five years ago donated a trophy.

On Tuesday night, we were in three places at once as the Kings Hall resounded to the big band sound from as far afield as Burnley, Batley, Leeds and Ossett, and we welcomed back our own Ilkley Music Centre Adult Concert Band. 

On Wednesday we concluded our Speech & Drama classes and began our solo instrumental classes at the Riddings Hall and Christchurch, with performances from violinists, cellists, mixed recorder and instrumental groups, family music-making, some chamber music and a recorder group.  Where are all the recorder soloists?  Only one girl entered this instrument class this year.

Also on Wednesday, we had an evening of Asian music with a variety of exponents of instrumental and vocal, (classical, light and devotional music), from SAA-UK.  In Christchurch the same evening we had a variety of string solos. 

On Thursday, we again broke out on three fronts at once with the inordinately spectator-friendly School Choirs Workshop at the Kings Hall.  This is a great user-friendly event for an audience if we can ever get one and aimed at the non-specialist LEA teacher showing how to get children to sing!  The afternoon recapped the morning and brought the opportunity for the six primary schools involved to present short concerts of their own rehearsed material.  Wibsey Primary from Bradford, Menston Primary, All Saints CE Primary from Ilkley, and for the first time, Rossett Acre Primary, Harrogate, Water Street County Primary, Skipton, and All Saints CE Primary, Kirkby Overblow.  The Kings Hall was stacked out with enthusiastic children all making wonderful music together in songs they’d learnt previously and new material introduced on the day.

In the Riddings Hall on Thursday morning we had special school groups coming together from schools all over Yorkshire for Music Makers, and at Christchurch, we had the start of the day’s piano classes.  These continued throughout the afternoon and evening.

Thursday evening consisted of adult piano classes, jazz improvisation, duets and recitals, brass and woodwind solos, brass and saxophone groups. On Thursday evening, we also had our now regular Handbell Orchestra visitors, and what a magical sound they produced.

Friday afternoon saw junior and over sixties vocals in Christchurch and school choirs in the Craiglands Choir Day at the Kings Hall. The Craiglands Hotel are once again lending their kind and so generous support to the Festival this year by sponsoring the school choirs afternoon.  This is another afternoon in which audience accommodation will be restricted to the balcony as we have almost 300 children in just one choir class.  Overwhelming support from Bradford RC primary and secondary schools accounted for this unprecedented number of entries.

On Friday evening, we had the usual senior vocal classes in Christchurch and  the Riddings Hall, (the Ilkley Parish Council Evening of vocal delight), including the new Entertainer class, folk songs and the senior Songs from the Shows.   A sparkling evening’s entertainment closed with the Old Time Music Hall class in the capable hands of its redoubtable chairman, Mr Gerald Woollin!

In Christchurch on Friday evening we had the National Song class, open to Girls aged 11 – 16 years and boys aged 11 – 18 years.  Competitors had either to recite a poem or speak briefly about their choice before singing it and both elements were judged.  We also had Edwardian and Victorian ballads, and songs from Gilbert and Sullivan. 

On Saturday the tempo moved up a gear as we worked through the operatic, oratorio, and other major vocal classes.  Three competitors chosen from these classes once again vied for the magnificent HSBC Rose Bowl, awarded to the most outstanding senior vocal soloist at the Celebration Concert on Wednesday 23rd May at Christchurch at 7.00 pm.

Meanwhile, in the Kings Hall, spectators swung to the inimitable sound of the Bearfootin’ Pop Group from Russell Hall Primary School and the gospel choir St Clare’s Singers from Bradford. With rich vocal tones from Opus 44 Female Voice Choir from Keighley and Shipley Musical Union we enjoyed a splendid afternoon’s entertainment.

The Spooner Trust once again generously gave sponsorship for which we are supremely grateful.  The Celebration Concert was reinvented in a bid to attract more audience members and prove a lesser drain on our finances but once again showcased many of the most glittering performances of the week, including the major trophy winners (and their prize presentations).  This proved to be a sell-out!

This year we ran a painting competition aimed at local primary schools the subject of which was “design a poster for the WFPA”.  Besides winning book token prizes for the top three in both age groups, the winning posters were reprinted and displayed in shop windows to advertise the Festival and in the Lower Hall, Christchurch, throughout Festival Week.  The best of the rest were on display at Ilkley Library and in the windows of the Ilkley Gazette.       

I should like to pay tribute to the very many people who have helped to make this year’s Wharfedale Festival of Performing Arts one of the best and most successful in recent years. There are so many different components all working together to create an event which is described by the British and International Federation of Music Festivals as the “jewel in the crown of the Federation Festivals”. We are justly proud of this soubriquet, and of the many members of our team who have all helped us to earn it. All the platform, adjudicators’, house and box office stewards, the scribes, our ‘in-house’ caterers and the staff at the Christchurch Coffee Centre as well as all at the Kings Hall, Christchurch, All Saints and the Baptist Church who are all so welcoming and cannot do enough to help us, deserve the highest commendation for their support and commitment.

Our accompanists, who work so hard for weeks beforehand practising ‘own choices’ and whose own performances are second to none, are stars in the Wharfedale firmament and only serve to enhance the fine reputation of the Festival.  This year we welcomed two new ones, Mark Wilkinson and Mata Williams.

Our adjudicators were exceptionally good, with Geoffrey Annis, Susan Mackay and Stephen Owen for Speech & Drama and Christina Thomson and Steven Roberts for music.  It was a delight to work with them.
 
To everyone who put themselves out in any way to ‘oil the wheels’ and ensure the smooth-running of the week’s events; to Denis, who kept the box-offices ticking over with fresh floats and ticket supplies and did so much more, both prior to, and during the week of the Festival; to our sponsors and advertisers; to the staff at the Tourist Information Centre, to Simon Ravens and the Grove Bookshop and to Paul and Mel at the Ilkley Gazette for their enthusiastic support, I should like to offer a huge thank you.  Also to Bupa, Straven House and the Grammar School at Leeds for their involvement this year.

An important word of thanks is due to the staff and children of all schools taking part, parents and competitors of all ages who gain so much from their participation and also to our Webmaster who works so hard to keep our website up-to-date and vibrant, and in doing so, has won an impressive number of IT awards for his labours.

The Festival has been blessed by particularly strong support from our own Ilkley Parish Council, promoted by Cllr Mike Gibbons.  We have again received major sponsorship from the Craiglands Hotel, and their support is appreciated beyond all words.  We owe them both unbounded gratitude. 

It has been gratifying in the extreme to learn that many people considered this year’s Festival to have been the best ever.  Certain it is that the standard of performance seems to rise year on year.

A big thank you to all our supporting teachers, parents and competitors!  They especially are the “WOW Factor” of our fabulous, first-rate Festival.

Additional to the actual week of Festival activities, we also run our annual Special Needs Workshop, which this year took place in mid-June at the Riddings Hall under the auspices of Diane Paterson and YAMSEN, financed as always by the generosity of Booths.  The focus this year was on the deaf and partially hearing and the activity was Samba.  We were treated to a delightful day with ten young people from Leeds mainstream schools who had worked previously during the week not only on the music but also on some colourful props to complement their performance.  Thanks to Sue from Wise Up for providing the workshop, and to Diane for bringing this to fruition.

Another star in the WFPA firmament is Judith Mills who this year presented the first WF X Factor competition, replacing PopStar with a slightly different competition.  The talent was unbelievable, and the finals, held at the end of June, saw three young girls, aged 14,15 and 16, battling it out for the title.  Each had to sing three different songs and the voting was done by the audience.  The voices were incredibly fine and each performance displayed maturity beyond their years.  It was a very close call, but the title went to Rachel Crisp, (16), from Brighouse, and we look forward to welcoming her to the Festival Celebration Concert in May 2008.  Huge thanks to Judith, the Adjudicators and all who had a part to play in this successful event!  Auditions for WF X Factor 2008 will be held in October/November.  Entry forms and details will be posted on the website in due course.

Still to come, and due to take place in November, is our WFPA Dance Championships.  These are organised to a fine art by Ivy Wailes, to whom another huge debt of thanks is due.  The date is Saturday 17th November and the venue is Guiseley Theatre.  Syllabuses are out now and can be downloaded from the website.  We look forward to another day of wonderful entertainment.

Festival Secretary
Summer 2007