Welcome to our 2025 Festival which will be running over two weekends this year.
We hope you will enjoy all our Syllabus has to offer. We have some lovely new
additions for you! In Music a new Pop Class for Year 6 & under, a Disney Class for
mature adults together with a Mature Adults 45+ Class for an Own Choice piece, and
a new section for Songs from the Stage and Screen. Our Piano Solo this year is from
any Classical Composer, so lots of fun to come!
Classical Guitar classes also include the Mandolin and Ukulele. Dance have sadly
discontinued their Novice Section, but their many other classes have much to offer.
Speech & Drama have introduced a Group Acting Open Class for adults, have
expanded the Mime classes, and entrants can now read their pieces in the Junior
Recital Class bringing further flexibility to performance.
This year our adjudicators are Helen Sanderson (Classical Guitar), Marcia Carr,
Ann Newson and Samantha Tucker (Musical Theatre & Speech & Drama), Nadia
Lasserson (Instrumental), Luise Horrocks (Voice), Joseph Tong (Piano), Kate
Martin (Dance) and not forgetting our resident Poet Ceri Gascoyne who will be
judging our Poetry Competition. We are privileged to have them with us this year. Do
look at their glowing profiles. We are also excited to announce that we now offer a
Junior Section to our “Script Writing a Play for Radio” Competition to be judged by
the Chair Godfrey Room and sub-committee of The Western Players, Swindon.
Also, teachers can now enter our Poetry Competition as well as festival entrants,
their siblings and family members. Exciting times! Writers young and old, come and
join us!
Participation in the festival helps to engender a love of the arts and gives an
opportunity for children and adults to explore a range of performance skills. We look
forward to you all joining us again this year and hope you will be enriched by the
experience.
Performance of any sort is the shaping and foundation of young people’s lives and in
turn this helps them to grow and gain confidence for the complex world we live in.
We are delighted we can offer them this opportunity.
We are indebted to G4S and the Sixth Form for hosting us, and we thank our
wonderful volunteers and the RWB & District Rotary Club for their valuable support.
We would also like to thank David Radway who generously engraves all RWBAF
trophies free of charge as a contribution towards the festival. We are truly grateful to
them all and to our teachers without whom we would not have a thriving and vibrant
festival. RWBAF aims to promote all Arts being taught and performed in Royal
Wootton Bassett and surrounding areas. We liaise with local organisations, the Area
Board, the Town Council, G4S and the Sixth Form at RWBA. Their valuable support
enables us to extend such opportunities to our community to develop their
educational skills and keep the arts alive for succeeding generations.
We look forward to seeing you all in November!
Sandra McDowell – Festival Chair
RWB Arts Festival 