Welcome

2020 is the Centenary of the Festival

The 2019 festival has now finished, but we are starting to plan for our centenary in 2020.

We will launch the centenary with a concert in the Rosslyn Hill Chapel in the early evening on Friday 15th November. This concert is replacing the President’s Prize for the winners of all our senior competitions, so please put the date in your diaries.

Also as part of the centenary celebrations we would like to hear memories of the festival from anyone and especially professional musicians who took part in the festival as children.

Highlights from the 2018 and 2019 festivals

Links to highlights from the 2018 and 2019 festivals will be added shortly.

Performances from the 2019 Singing Recital Prize Competition incorporating an interview with the adjudicator, Joan Rogers.

Performances from the 2019 D’Addario String Prize Competition together with interviews with the adjudicator, Hilary Sturt, and Markus Lawrenson from D’Addario.

Performances from the 2018 D’Addario String Prize Competition together with interviews with the adjudicator, Diana Cummings, and Markus Lawrenson from D’Addario.

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The North London Festival of Music, Speech and Drama takes place each year in the spring. The festival is highly regarded and was founded in 1920 by a group of eminent North London musicians, composers and educators including Sir Edward Elgar, Sir Charles Stanford and Dame Clara Butt. The Festival is dedicated to encouraging young musicians and actors by celebrating performance and helping them to nurture their creativity, develop excellent communication skills and build poise and confidence. Some go on to have a career in the arts; those taking a different path find these skills to be highly transferable.

With more than 200 competitions in over 15 different categories, the Festival champions the rich spectrum of the Arts, catering for children and adults at all ability levels. As well as a significant number of competitions for those of school age, the Festival encourages older learners or returners to discover the fun and benefits of active participation in music making. It also runs a series of highly respected Elite competitions for conservatoire students which are essential stepping stones to competing in international competitions.

Our Festival Competitions are open to amateurs and students whatever their age or ability. Entrants are given the opportunity to perform in front of an audience and may win a cash prize, trophy or certificate. Everyone receives oral and written feedback from adjudicators who are all professionals in their fields as well as taking away with them a copy of the adjudicator’s written comments and a certificate of participation. Come and further your performance skills, learn from the adjudicators and your peers, and enjoy the stimulus of competition.

We warmly welcome audience members at all our competitions. To hear news of the festival, sign up to our mailing list by emailing – enq@northlondonfestival.org.uk

In 2020, we plan to run the festival ran from Monday 2nd March to Monday 25th May with a break over Easter from Saturday 4th to Wednesday 15th April and a later break from Wednesday 20th May to Saturday 23rd May.

On 25th May 2018 the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) was introduced to give people more rights concerning their personal data held or used by organisations. To view our privacy policy please see the link to Data and Privacy Policies in the footer of this page.

For more information about the festival and its history, please  click on the History link in the footer of this page.

Download the 2019 syllabus North London Festival Syllabus 2019