Background

The Rotary Club of Colchester Festival of Music, provides a performance platform for aspiring amateur musicians with supportive feedback from professional adjudicators in a friendly atmosphere.

The Festival began in 1991 and was originally organised and funded by three Rotary Clubs in Colchester.  From its outset the Festival has been affiliated to the British and International Federation of Festivals.

The Festival is a friendly, competitive festival with a wide range of classes.  Each participant gets a written adjudication and the first three in each class are awarded Gold, Silver or Bronze medals.  The adjudicators are always chosen from the British and International Federation of Festivals specialist adjudicators.  This ensures that the quality of the feedback is of the highest standard and that the running of the Festival is compliant with all of the national standards.  Adjudicators are also always from out of the Essex/Suffolk area to ensure that there are no conflicts of interest.

There are six possible Trophies to be awarded, The Andrew Allen Trophy for Music Ensembles, The Hatfield Trophy for Choirs, The Colchester Rotary Club Young Musician of the Year Trophy and The Colchester Rotary Club Young Singer of the Year Trophy.  The Colchester Rotary Club Young Musician of the Year runner up  and The Colchester Rotary Club Young Singer of the Year runner up . These will be presented at the Gala performance on Sunday evening. 

Rotary District, Cluster and National Finals - Winners of the Colchester Rotary Club Young Musician of the Year Trophy and The Colchester Rotary Club Young Singer of the Year Trophy will be invited to take part in the Rotary District finals evening, normally held in February the year following the Festival and if they win to go on to Rotary Cluster ( East Anglia) finals and possibly on to National finals.

We are delighted that our Festival of Music is held at St Botolph’s church which is renowned for its fabulous acoustics. 

The Festival is a non-profit event and one of the major projects that the club undertakes each year alongside its charitable work in the Colchester community and around the world.  The organising committee consists of volunteers largely from the Rotary Club of Colchester who meet monthly to plan and implement each year’s festival.  The work starts in August for the following year and requires a lot of time and energy throughout the year.  The stewarding of the Festival weekend is also done by volunteers from the Rotary clubs in Colchester.  It takes a lot of people to make this Festival happen!.