Bedfordshire Festival of Music, Speech and Drama

03/07/2025

On Tuesday, we were delighted to be able to present at the Raising Aspirations meeting - where sixth form educators from across Bedfordshire joined together to explore ways of supporting and inspiring students as they look at future career and academic pathways.

We were pleased to be able to share details of classes in our speech and drama syllabus that help to build presentation and public speaking skills and we were delighted to meet the hard-working and inspirational teachers helping to guide our county's young people.

We hope to welcome many of them to our Festival in 2026!

03/07/2025

Save the date! ⏰

Our 2026 Festival will run from 7th to 14th March 2026, so block it out in your diary now, you won't want to miss it!

26/06/2025

What's that? The 2026 Syllabus is being released next week?

So you'll have the whole summer holidays to think about what you'd like to enter?

Well isn't that exciting! 🤩

19/06/2025

Bedford Breakthrough at Esquires is coming up again soon! If you'd like to perform, please email us. You can now sign up on our what's on page. https://bedfordmusic.org.uk/activities/bedford-breakthrough-at-esquires-old/ and tickets are available from our Ticketsource shop www.ticketsource.co.uk/bedfordmusicservice Bedford Borough Council Bedford Music Cooperative FBYM - The Friends of Bedfordshire Youth Music Bedford Borough Parent Carer Forum Bedford Esquires Cool4school Goldington Academy Castle Newnham School Bedford Modern School

12/06/2025

For today's we're looking back on the proud day that the Festival was awarded the Queen's Award for Voluntary Service in 2019 - the highest accolade given to volunteer groups in the UK.

We continue to be run by a dedicated team of volunteers who are passionate about nurturing creativity and providing performance opportunities for our county's young people.

If you'd like to find out more about volunteering for the Bedfordshire Festival, do get in touch at [email protected]

10/06/2025

Did you know that performers taking part in any of our piano classes for Grade 4 and under have the choice of either using our Grand Piano or a Keyboard to perform on?

We know that for many young people, they will have been practicing their pieces at home or in class on an electric keyboard rather than a piano, and so we want to ensure that our performers are comfortable sharing their work on their instrument of choice.

Our Adjudicators will give equal consideration to the performances regardless of which instrument you opt for, so all you have to do is take to the keys and play your piece as brilliantly as you can!

04/06/2025

A fantastic opportunity for young musicians! 🤩

Are you aged between 11 to 14 and grade 4 or more? The London Philharmonic Orchestra are running a FREE Overture day on Wednesday 30th July from 10:30 till 16:30 in London. For more information visit lpo.org.uk/overture
Bedford Borough CouncilBedfordshire Music TrustBedford Music CooperativeLuton Music ServiceFBYM - The Friends of Bedfordshire Youth MusicMK Music ServiceCBC Inspiring Music

30/05/2025

In 2025, 1349 entries were made across all classes in our Festival, featuring over 3000 performers 🤯

Will you be joining us again in 2026? Look out for our new syllabus, coming soon! 👀

29/05/2025

Our most popular new class in 2025 was the Business Pitch class, in which students in years 5-8 or years 9-12 prepared and delivered a short business pitch based on a product or project of their choice.

This is a great class for young people to practice their presentation skills, to nurture their interest in business and to explore a very different side of performing.

What will you be pitching in 2026?

24/05/2025

Can you guess what our most popular class was across the whole Festival in 2025? 🧐

With a whopping 75 entries, this year's top class to enter was.....

Verse Speaking Solo Year 6!

Who knew there would be so many poetry loving 10 and 11 year olds in Bedfordshire? We hope to see you all back in 2026 for the Year 7 class!

22/05/2025

We have some really fun ideas of new classes to add to the 2026 Drama syllabus, but we'd love to hear your input as we plan the Festival programme for next year.

Are there Speech and Drama classes you'd like to see? Anything you would enjoy preparing material for?

We'd love to hear from parents, performers and teachers about how we can improve or develop the 2026 Speech and Drama syllabus - drop us a DM, comment below or email [email protected] with your ideas!