The International Gilbert and Sullivan Festival was founded in 1994 by Ian Smith and his son Neil and is held every summer in England. The two- or three-week Festival of Gilbert and Sullivan opera performances and fringe events attracts thousands of visitors, including performers, supporters, and G&S enthusiasts from around the world. The Festival was held in Buxton, Derbyshire, from 1994 to 2013, and from 2014 to 2022 it was held in Harrogate, North Yorkshire, usually with a week in Buxton preceding the main part of the Festival. The entire Festival returned to Buxton in 2023, where it continues.
At the Festival, there are both professional and amateur Gilbert and Sullivan performances. Among the professional offerings are performances each year by the Festival's homegrown National Gilbert & Sullivan Opera Company. Amateur Gilbert and Sullivan performing societies from around the world perform on the Festival's main stage each year. A smaller nearby theatre and other venues host the Festival fringe, which consists of dozens of performances, including a Unifest competition among university groups, and lectures, a memorabilia fair, and other events.
History The Festival was founded in 1994 by English businessman Ian Smith (1939–2019)"Ian Smith obituary", The Times, 27 November 2019; and "Halifax businessman and founder of International Gilbert and Sullivan Festival Ian Smith dies aged 80", Halifax Courier, 26 November 2019 and continues to be produced by his wife Janet, son Neil and their family to preserve and enhance the knowledge, understanding and appreciation of the works of Gilbert and Sullivan.Hall, George. "Celebrating 25 years of the very model of a modern opera festival", The Stage, 3 August 2018; and Hastings, Sheena. "Chorus of approval for family with song in hearts", The Yorkshire Post, 12 July 2012, accessed 23 November 2019 It also has a goal of reinstating G&S and the performing arts in schools in Britain. The founders believe that the Gilbert and Sullivan works are an important national heritage and legacy, especially as performed in the tradition of the venerable D'Oyly Carte Opera Company, which performed Gilbert and Sullivan's Savoy Operas continuously, year-round, for over a century until 1982.Bradley, pp. 49–50; Joseph, p. 358. Between 1988 and 2003, a seasonal company used the name D'Oyly Carte. See Bradley, pp. 54–68Skow, John. 1982 "Music: Final Curtain for D'Oyly Carte". Time magazine, 8 March 1982, accessed 7 July 2010. Until the Gilbert and Sullivan copyrights expired in 1961, no other professional theatre or opera companies were allowed to present the Savoy Operas in Britain, although professional companies performed the operas elsewhere, and numerous amateur Gilbert and Sullivan companies performed around the world. After 1961 other professional companies began to perform the operas in Britain, but none were full-time. See Bradley, chapters four and six; and Hewett, Ivan. "The Magic of Gilbert and Sullivan". The Telegraph, 2 August 2009, accessed 14 April 2010. When the D'Oyly Carte Opera Company closed in 1982, greatly diminishing the amount of Gilbert and Sullivan produced in Britain, Ian Smith "had a burning anger" that the English Arts Council had not subsidised the company, and this led him to found the Festival.Bradley, pp. 45 and 197–98
The Festival was held in Buxton, England, every year from 1994 to 2013, but it experimented with producing additional Festival weeks in other towns or cities, including Eastbourne, England once; Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, twice; Berkeley, California, once;Festival history pagesSandham, David. "Buxton Festivals", Buxton Festivals archive, accessed 19 September 2010 and Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, twice.Smith, Tim. "Summertime means a boon for Gilbert and Sullivan fans". The Baltimore Times, 15 June 2011 The main part of the Festival relocated to Harrogate, England, in 2014,Chalmers, Graham. "Harrogate wins topsy-turvy battle over G&S Festival" , Wetherby News, 5 June 2014Chalmers, Graham. "Harrogate loves International G&S Festival!", Harrogate Advertiser, August 2014 where it continued to be held each summer,Wilkinson, Sue. "Facts and figures of Harrogate’s G&S Festival" , Harrogate Advertiser, 26 March 2018 but it also gave a week of mostly professional shows in Buxton shortly before its main opening in Harrogate."Gilbert & Sullivan Festival back in Buxton this July", VisitBuxton.co.uk, accessed 16 July 2019Beale, Robert. "The Gondoliers at Buxton Opera House review", Manchester Evening News, 7 August 2015; and Bratby, Richard. "The Yeomen of the Guard, National Gilbert & Sullivan Opera Company", TheArtsDesk.com, 2 August 2016
The Festival was not held in 2020, when Harrogate was hosting an NHS Nightingale Hospital during the COVID-19 pandemic.Orme, Steve. "Gilbert and Sullivan Festival to return", British Theatre Guide, 20 April 2021and Chalmers, Graham. "Historic Harrogate venue reopens its doors for the first time in 15 months", Harrogate Advertiser, 28 June 2021 During the shutdown, the Festival launched an online streaming service that presents recorded performances from past Festivals and some live content.Wild, Stephi. "International Gilbert and Sullivan Festival Launches Online Platform With Streaming Performances", BroadwayWorld, 13 May 2020 The Festival was awarded a grant of £120,000 from the government Culture Recovery Fund that helped it to survive the shutdown and, in 2021, resume annually."The 27th Gilbert & Sullivan Festival in Harrogate", Harrogate Informer, 14 August 2021 Until 2022 it continued to run for a week in Buxton and nearly two weeks in Harrogate.Letts, Quentin. "42 best days out for summer 2022: festivals, art, film and more; A Riotous Explosion of Song", The Sunday Times; July 10, 2022 Fearn, Nathan. "10 of the best Derbyshire festivals this summer", GreatBritishLife.co.uk, Archant Community Media, 27 June 2022; and "28th International Gilbert & Sullivan Festival returns to the Royal Hall with twelve spectacular days of entertainment", Harrogate Informer, 13 June 2022 In 2023 the entire Festival returned to Buxton,Ball, Lucy. "Welcome return of Gilbert and Sullivan Festival to Buxton", Buxton Advertiser, 9 August 2023 where it continues.Bolton, Gay. "International Gilbert and Sullivan Festival in Derbyshire promises 15 days of joyous operas", Derbyshire Times, 25 July 2024
Description Each summer, beginning with the last weekend in July or first weekend in August, the Festival includes two or three weeks of nightly G&S operas (and weekend matinees) and dozens of daytime fringe activities,Radcliffe, Philip. "theartsdesk in Buxton: G&S live on (and on)", theartsdesk.com, 22 July 2012Smith, Ian. "What's On Guide 2018", The International Gilbert & Sullivan Festival, accessed 2 July 2018; "Ian Smith obituary", The Times, 27 November 2019; and " Feast of G and S is heading your way as festival returns" , Buxton Advertiser, 23 June 2018 The Festival has sold more than 25,000 tickets in some years"ClassicFest, Royal Hall, Harrogate, August 21 to 27", The Press, 20 July 2012, accessed 30 November 2020 and has attracted up to 2,000 performers.Moss, Stephen. "Gilbert and Sullivan: The unbearable lightness of being". The Guardian, 21 January 2010, accessed 6 August 2010
Sky Arts described the Festival as "one of the most colourful, melodic and joyous festivals of musical theatre you will come across. Celebrating the timeless, waspishly satirical lyrics of W. S. Gilbert and the brilliant musical inventiveness of Arthur Sullivan, the festival is quite simply the world’s biggest event dedicated to the Savoy operas. ... It is forward-looking and fun presenting contemporary as well as traditional productions of G&S.""Sky arts at the Gilbert and Sullivan Festival". Sky Arts, British Sky Broadcasting, accessed 13 August 2010 The Festival's professional orchestra accompanies the main stage performances."Harrogate will be new home for International G & S Festival in 2014" , NODA.org, 19 July 2013"The 30th International Gilbert & Sullivan Festival", International Gilbert and Sullivan Festival, December 2023, pp. 27
The competition
The Festival began as mostly a competition among amateur G&S performing troupes from Britain and around the world,Kidd, Patrick. "Gilbert and Sullivan Festival – How the Jackal Caused a Big (But Brilliantly Batty) Song and Dance", The Times, 10 August 2019 with up to a dozen or so amateur performances.Beale, Robert. "Blow me down! Gilbert & Sullivan bows out of Buxton", Manchester Evening News, 26 July 2013 On the weeknights during each Festival, "the best non-professional groups from the UK and overseas compete for the International Champions title." Some groups perform year after year at the Festival, but some companies, especially those travelling from North America, South Africa, Australia and other distant places, may visit only occasionally or once. Others meet and rehearse entirely at the Festival. The day of performance for each amateur group is hectic, with move-in to the theatre at 9 a.m., lighting call at 11 a.m., the one and only tech-dress rehearsal (with the Festival orchestra) in the afternoon, the performance in the evening, and move-out immediately afterwards.
A professional adjudicator critiqued each amateur performance immediately after the curtain fell. The adjudicator then scored each performance, and both group and individual awards were announced at the end of the Festival.Lee, Bernard. "Gilbert and Sullivan are still going strong after a century" , The Telegraph, 1 August 2008 At the first Festival in 1994, first prize was awarded to the production of Utopia, Limited, presented by the Gilbert & Sullivan Society of Maine, in the US (then known as the G&S Society of Hancock County). The Derby Gilbert & Sullivan Company won the first prize more often than any other company (six times); and the South Anglia Savoy Players won five times and placed second four times. Festival Productions, Ireland, won in three consecutive years, 2007 to 2009. Individual awards were also presented for performers, directors and musical directors.Sandham, David. "Champions", Festivals archive showing the winners each year up to 2010, accessed 19 September 2012 The internet group SavoyNet, which has competed each year since 1997, were Festival Champions in 2013 and 2018 and are the first and only company to present all 14 G&S operas at the Festival.International Gilbert and Sullivan Festival souvenir programme, 2018, p. 39; "Savoynet Performing Group", National Operatic & Dramatic Association, accessed 19 July 2018Smith, Ian (presenter). "The 25th International Gilbert & Sullivan Festival Awards Ceremony" at 37:45, Official Facebook page of the International Gilbert & Sullivan Festival, 25 August 2018 By the end of the second decade of the Festival, the number of amateur productions each year had decreased, and after the pandemic, the live adjudications were discontinued, but cash prizes are given for Festival and UNIFest champions and runners up."Awards Ceremony", International Gilbert & Sullivan Festival, 2023