The Gilbert & Sullivan Festival was founded in 1994 and for the first 20 years was staged in Buxton Opera House in the Derbyshire Peak District. In 2014 the Festival moved to its new location in The Royal Hall, Harrogate in North Yorkshire. Watch our short film to give you a taste of what to expect.
The picture above shows just how compact the Festival is. With the Crown Hotel and the Old Swan Hotel equally close and some excellent nearby guesthouses, you can see just how easy it is to get around. Your comfort is our first priority. You can walk from the Utopia Pavilion into the Royal Hall and only a stones throw away is the Harrogate Theatre.
The Festival brings together a wonderful mix of leading amateur performing groups who compete for the coveted Festival Champion’s Trophy. There are also professional performances from the acclaimed National Gilbert & Sullivan Opera Company, Charles Court Opera and Forbear! Theatre.
Adjoining the Royal Hall on the left hand side is the Festival’s “Utopia Pavilion”. This is the place where everyone can meet from 9.30am until the early hours. The Festival Box Office and Information Desk is located at the entrance and open from 9.30am until the evening interval. There is a wide range of catering facilities, a bar, the Festival Shop, free film shows, free lunchtime entertainment and every evening after the curtain falls the Festival Club comes to life here with singing and entertainment until the early hours.
Up the hill, you will find the Harrogate Theatre. This is the venue for the Festival’s matinee performances which include the UNIFest competition featuring fully staged productions from leading British universities, our Festival Youth Production and as you will see on the programme page, a wide and varied range of performances.
At the back of the Utopia Pavilion, you will find the “Utopia Theatre” – the venue for our morning fringe activities. This custom built venue will provide the perfect setting for our morning fringe events and some of our matinee performances, with ample space on stage and in the audience.
All performances in the Royal Hall are accompanied by the renowned National Gilbert & Sullivan Orchestra and those in the Savoy Theatre are accompanied by our UNIFest Orchestra.
For twenty-three years, at home and overseas, the Festival has been superbly served by Sally Robinson and her National Gilbert & Sullivan Orchestra. Our players are drawn from all around the UK with an amazing breadth of professional experience with the country’s major symphony, chamber and opera orchestra and West End and Broadway shows.
Sally Robinson was born in London and at the age of ten she won a junior exhibition to the Royal College of Music to study the violin with Pauline Scott, then went on to study at the Royal Northern College of Music in Manchester. As a freelance violinist, Sally has worked with the National Philharmonic Orchestra, English National Ballet, Manchester Concert Orchestra, the Carl Rosa Orchestra and others. Sally has led the orchestra for Gilbert & Sullivan Festival since its inception which is always a highlight of the year!This year’s programme has been simplified to avoid any overlaps and the daily programme format is:
| 10.30am | G&S related fringe presentations (Utopia Theatre) |
| 1.00pm | Free lunchtime entertainment (Utopia Pavilion) |
| 2.30pm | Matinee performance (The Utopia Theatre) |
| 7.00pm | 10-minute introduction to the evening performance (Utopia Pavilion) |
| 7.30pm | Professional, semi-professional or competing performance (The Royal Hall) |
| 10.00pm | Festival Club including cabarets (Utopia Pavilion) |
The Gilbert & Sullivan Festival is renowned for its friendly welcome and visitors return year after year from all around the world to soak up is special, magical atmosphere.
It is a truly English phenomenon and certainly much of its absurdity and eccentricity comes directly from Chairman and Artistic Director Ian Smith, who founded the Festival in 1994.
Said Ian, “The Festival is all about fantastic entertainment. The glorious music of Sullivan and Gilbert’s wonderful, witty dialogue and outstanding political satire which would not be out of place in today’s party political spats”.
There is simply nothing else quite like it. Performing groups get into the Royal Hall at 9.00 am in the morning. They have to set up lights and scenery; dress rehearse their show with the National Festival Orchestra; perform and then, like Cinderella, they have to vacate the premises lock, stock, scenery and costumes before midnight in anticipation of the next group moving in the following morning. During the course of the Festival there will be over 2,000 performers.
Gilbert & Sullivan is special. And it has that rare quality of lifting the spirits, putting a skip in the step and making life just feel better! The Festival brings out the very best and offers Gilbert & Sullivan from morning till night in the magnificent surroundings of the Royal Hall. A main target of our festival has been to keep the Gilbert and Sullivan flame burning brightly and strongly. We have certainly achieved that. We have had some artistic triumphs – and some financial disasters. We have had some amazingly moving letters and emails from people from all walks of life and from all around the world who have been touched by some part of a visit to the festival.
And in a nutshell, that’s what makes this unique Festival fun, friendly and for all the family.
