About

the Festival

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A culture festival in East Anglia

  • A showcase for leading performers and exponents of their respective fields, featuring both local luminaries and internationally recognised stars.

  • Multi-disciplinary - Spanning a broad and disparate range of cultural activity including music, visual arts, moving image, poetry, media and books.

  • Multi-genre - Not bound to any single aesthetic or historical period, the main touchstone of content is excellence and creative leadership

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Besides stimulating, entertaining and delighting you, the Festival seeks to —

  • Plug the culture gap between London and Aldeburgh

  • Enrich the cultural scene by introducing local audiences to performers and content of defining artistic and creative excellence

  • Support and grow the regional creative ecosystem by showcasing artists and creatives in our own backyard

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  • Anna Mathias - Educator, memoirist and producer.

  • Geoffrey Probert - High Sherriff of Suffolk (2017)

  • Andrew Sunnucks - Founder, Audio Network

  • Edward Wild - head hunter, board adviser and founder of Wild Search

 
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A message from the founder

“After living in East Anglia for some years, it became obvious to me that there were thousands of artists living and working in the region.  Yet, when I wanted to take in some high-quality culture, I had to drive 90 minutes to either London, Cambridge or Snape Maltings to enjoy a concert, recital or exhibition. It was a real head-scratcher.

I wanted to do something to create more connective tissue in the art and culture scene but whenever I broached the subject, I was met with either bemusement or blank uninterest. My motivation to set something up gradually dwindled. Then, last year, a first-time encounter with one of my advisors, Andrew Sunnucks, changed my life. Once I laid out my vision for the Festival, he was all hands on deck -- and one thing led to another -- FAST. He opened his Rolodex full of bold-face names and, suddenly, the Festival began taking on a momentum of its own, largely because of the cascade of goodwill that resulted from his first phone calls -- to Evelyn Glennie and John Lloyd.

That’s the real story of how the Festival got started. The fuel was my long-standing passion and involvement in arts and culture. The fire-starter was the individual who encouraged me to take the bull by the horns and JUST DO IT.

This is all my way of saying, a Festival IS the people -- their values, their energy, their commitment.”

— Joanne Ooi (January 2021)