Thousands of people every year visit Burford to admire its handsome buildings and the celebrated view. But Burford is not just a Cotswold theme park. There are people living here - professionals, traders and craftsmen - whose roots in the town go back for more than a century; there are people from the neighbouring villages who help to staff the shops and businesses, families with young children at the playgroup and the primary school, teenagers from the School boarding house, as well as newcomers, the old and the retired.

Burford is a vibrant and friendly community, where people greet you in the street, chat to you in the shops and quietly look after their neighbours when they are in difficulties. With less than twelve hundred residents, Burford maintains more shops and businesses than many places twice its size: you can still live and die in Burford without ever leaving the town.

The Festival began in 2001 as a two-day event to promote the Cotswold Children’s Choir, a local enterprise. It proved a success, and the organisers decided to build on this by widening its scope to offer a range of activities and entertainment to appeal to every part of the community. In 2003 the second event included garden opening, a local crafts fair, a poetry reading, a concert and a banquet in the parish church. This last proved so popular that it has been repeated on each subsequent occasion and sells out almost as soon as the box office opens.

In both 2005 and 2007 the Festival was extended to cover a week and two weekends, which seems the optimum period for attracting audiences to the events that a local festival can offer. We also aimed to broaden the spectrum of entertainment, including jazz and blues events alongside classical music and literary talks.

In 2007 we introduced a Friends’ scheme enabling well-wishers to donate modest sums in order to underpin the essential costs which cannot be met by ticket sales alone. Each festival since then has raised over £4000 from a wide range of donors, and the surpluses accumulated are ploughed back into local good causes.

A new initiative in 2007 was a lunch in the festival marquee for 200 older citizens from all parts of the town, encouraged by a network of helpers and generously supported by local businesses. In 2009 it took the form of a tea-party, presenting novel challenges, eg how to produce 200 simultaneous cups of tea; this year it will again be a lunch. Another new feature is the Heritage Fair, introduced in 2009 and much expanded this year - see the dedicated page here. The aim is always to give all comers the opportunity to sample new cultural experiences at affordable prices.