Bedfordshire Festival of Music, Speech and Drama

23/10/2025

Our friends at the are once again hosting the Bedford round of the Rotary Young Musician Competition on 27th and 28th November.

Ensembles, Choirs, solo voice and solo instrument performers are eligible to enter with a piece or programme of up to 10 minutes.

To enter simply contact [email protected] before 24th November to be in with a chance to win!

Could you be this year's Rotary Young Musician? Enter now to find out!

18/10/2025

Would you like to find out more about entering your music students into the Bedfordshire Festival?

We are offering a free 30 minute webinar on Monday 10th November to help teachers to find out more about the new syllabus and how to prepare and process your entry.

If you'd like to join us for this informal webinar, RSVP to https://forms.gle/qsBAT2VtYtu1AuWv5 or email us at [email protected]

16/10/2025

💬 I have been doing speech and drama since I was little, and the Bedfordshire Festival has always been something really fun to look forward to.

It is a great opportunity to experiment with interesting and exciting characters, and to meet new people.

I have learnt so much from other performers and the adjudicators, and performing in a public space has helped a lot to build my confidence. 💬

Flora
Aged 14

13/10/2025

There's a new way to submit your entries 🤩

Don't forget that we have a brand new entry portal now live, designed to make the entry process much faster and easier.

We'd advise you take a look at the portal in plenty of time so you can set up your account and get used to how the entries are submitted, but once you get the hang of it you'll be able to bulk upload your entries, significantly cutting your admin time.

If you have any questions, or if we can support you with the entry process, please don't hesitate to get in touch.

06/10/2025

💬 The Bedford Festival is a wonderful experience for students to put all their hard work into practise, in a safe, encouraging space.

It is wonderful to have a goal to work towards, a fantastic facility to perform in and receive feedback.

I find students are vastly more confident, year on year and always want to return. 💬

Bex Badham
Singing Teacher

30/09/2025

Lucy and Sally from our Festival Committee were delighted to join our Vice President, Viv, at the Development Day in London on Sunday, which gave member festivals from across the world the chance to come together to learn, share and develop their respective skills and knowledge.

There was a whole host of exciting seminars, workshops and lectures to choose from - from embracing technology to marketing and fundraising, social responsibility and outreach to accessibility and cultural awareness.

The team had an inspiring day and we're looking forward to putting these ideas into action in 2026.

Thanks for having us, BIFF!

24/09/2025

🎻✨ Calling all string players! ✨🎻

Join the Strings Chamber Course 2025 this October half-term and take your playing to the next level!

📍 Castle Newnham School
📅 Sat 25th – Mon 27th October 2025 | 10am–4pm
🎶 Final concert: Mon 27th at 6:30pm
🎼 Open to string players Grade 3+

🌟 Play beautiful chamber music
🌟 Work with expert tutors
🌟 Perform in a concert for family & friends

👉 Book your place by 10th October:
https://www.bedfordshiremusictrust.org.uk/book-a-course/

23/09/2025

The theme of this year's Composer class is 'The USA', to celebrate the 250th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence.

The class is open to any age, instrument or voice, and can be performed as a solo, duet or group. Performers must present a piece composed by an American composer, up to 6 minutes in length.

So now all you have to do is choose which of the American greats to play? Gershwin? Joplin? Cole Porter? Or will you go for something more modern and choose a John Williams composition? The possibilities are endless - we can't wait to see what you choose!

16/09/2025

🚨 Sound the alarm! The 2026 Festival Entry Portal is now officially open! 🚨

We're delighted to have launched a brand new entry system to make the process of submitting your entries easier and faster, using the 'Run my Festival' portal that many other festivals around the world also use.

If you have any questions about your entries or need any support, please do get in touch with the team at [email protected] and we'll be happy to help you.

We will be accepting entries from today until 23:59 on 15th December, so that's 3 whole months for you to peruse the new syllabus, choose all the exciting classes you want to enter and to get your details logged on the system.

All entries and payments are to be received by Monday 15th December 2025.

The deadline for changes to piece titles and composers/authors for all classes is Friday 16th January 2026.

All music accompaniments are to be received by Sunday 1st February 2026.

And most importantly, the dates of our 2026 Festival are Saturday 7th to Saturday 14th March 2026!

Check out www.bedfordshirefestival.org.uk to find out more about our 2026 syllabus and to start entering your performers.

Eek! Hands up who's excited? 🙌

15/09/2025

As one of the oldest festivals in the UK, we're proud of our heritage and the important role we've played over the past century in the creative life of the Bedfordshire community.

This amazing photo from our archives was taken 100 years ago at the 1925 Festival and features Professor Bantock, Dr H A Harding, M Harvey Grace & Captain Gedge.

If you have any photos of your own from past Festivals, we'd love to see them and add them to our extensive collection, to keep our archive updated for generations to come. Do share them with us at [email protected]

12/09/2025

05/09/2025

Have you had a sneaky peek at our 2026 syllabus yet? 👀

We were delighted to be able to share it before the summer break to give teachers the chance to take a look through the classes in advance, and our entry portal will officially open later this month so be sure to have a read and see what takes your fancy!

There's a whole host of new classes to explore - be sure to check out the full music and speech and drama syllabus at www.bedfordshirefestival.org.uk and let us know if you have any questions!