| |
|
| |
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 villages round 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 aims to build on this fund of awareness and good citizenship by offering a range of activities and entertainment to appeal to every part of the community. We want to give people the opportunity to sample new cultural experiences at affordable prices; from the town, the villages around or from further afield, you are all welcome! |
|
The 2009 Festival took place from 4 to 17 July.
Various factors meant that attendances were generally lower than in 2007, but the Festival still made a modest profit, which we distributed among the Burford charities we support.
Phographs recording the variety of events and activities which took place over the two weeks: three concerts in the Parish Church, Blues and Jazz in Burford School Hall, a Fête in the Primary School garden, an exhibition of work by local artists, literary & craft workshops and lectures elsewhere in the town, will be added shortly.
A new venture was the Cotswold Food & Drink day, which attracted twenty exhibitors as well as John Sergeant, the dancing celebrity, who took lunch with the representatives of our Italian twin town. The outstanding success was the tea party for 175 older residents, generously supplied by Huffkins and served by volunteers with the aid of six urns and twenty four teapots.
Throughout the Festival we were hugely encouraged by the support of local businesses, listed on the Links page, as well as by the financial contributions of 100 Friends and the help of volunteers from every part of the town who opened their gardens, made cakes, manned stalls at the Fête, posted signs, distributed leaflets, and acted as drivers, stewards, cashiers and movers of tables and chairs. As before, this was the best outcome of the Festival, because it showed more eloquently than any words or pictures why Burford is so special and why people like it here.
|
