Marking 90th anniversary of Harrogate event which discovered Dame Janet Baker and Lesley Garrett
The closing date for entries for a long-standing Harrogate music competition which has produced famous names of the future for nearly 90 years is just a few days away.
As Harrogate Competitive Festival prepares to celebrate its 90th anniversary, one of its hard-working organisers has delved into the earliest roots of this incredible annual event which will be forever linked with the likes of Dame Janet Baker and Lesley Garrett and is still discovering and encouraging young national and international talent even now.
With the deadline for entries set for midnight on Thursday, January 15, it should be added that, though the Harrogate Competitive Festival for Music, Speech and Drama, to give it its full name, will be 90-years-old in October, it will not be the 90th festival as there was a pause during the Second World War.
That, and other interesting facts, has been unearthed by Alan Connell, the festival's treasurer/joint secretary, who told the Harrogate Advertiser that Harrogate Musical Festival, as it was originally known, was founded in 1936 by a number of local patrons of the arts, in particular Arthur T Akeroyd a prominent organist.
Mr Connell continued: “Several thousand people entered the first Festival which commenced on the 15th October and ran for three days in the Royal Hall and Spa Rooms.
"From then until the 1939-1945 war the Festival was run by an independent committee.
"There was no activity during the war years and after it was over and it was found that the members of the old committee were unable to carry on, Harrogate Corporation, as was, took over the running of the Festival.
"That continued until 1980 when the then Borough Council withdrew its administrative support, although it did continue to contribute towards the hire of performance spaces until 2016.
"Since then the Festival has been entirely self-supporting.
"A number of people have performed at the Festival and have them gone on to become famous as artists.
“The last Conservative Culture Secretary the Rt Hon Lucy Frazer KC is a Festival alumni as are Gareth Gates, William Dutton the founder of the new chamber orchestra for Yorkshire, Cuore, and Oliver Briscombe who was the Speech & Drama Champion in 2023, his ninth year at the Festival.
"He is currently appearing in a principal role in the Alan Bennett film The Choral Starring Ralph Fiennes.
"The event is special because it gives mainly young people the now fast diminishing opportunity to perform along with their peers in front of a sympathetic audience and to receive a professional adjudication.
"Many performers attest to the fact that they found their Festival experience a great confidence booster which has been a continuing benefit to them."
The 2026 Harrogate Competitive Festival for Music, Speech and Drama will take place on the first three weekends in March at Harrogate High School.
The Syllabus is available now online at https://www.hcfmsd.co.uk/2026%20Syllabus.pdf