The 51st annual Rye Arts Festival was one of the strangest but, quite possibly, the very best ever.
The sad death of the Queen on the eve of the festival meant that St Mary’s Church overnight became unavailable as a venue during the first 10 days, and the absence of alternative venues at such short notice meant a number of classical music concerts and talks by high-profile speakers had to be cancelled.
But following the adage that “the show must go on”, the festival was still able to offer over 50 ticketed events during the fortnight, with classical music concerts resuming in St Mary’s Church after the royal funeral on Monday, September 19.
The festival trustees are hugely grateful to our audience for bearing with us during this difficult and demanding time; to the artistes who delivered talks, concerts, walks and drama and for providing such high-quality performances; to our corporate and private sponsors, advertisers and media partners; and to all the volunteers who worked tirelessly to plan, organise and then run the festival – a year-long effort that culminates in a packed programme in September.
The number of events that were unfortunately cancelled meant that the box office and festival finance team have been working long hours processing the tickets refunds and all ticket holders will be contacted shortly.
It is possible that some cancelled events may be re-arranged during coming months, but the logistics involved, and artistes’ availability may make this impossible. We will keep you posted.
Such was this year’s standard it is difficult to pull out individual events as so many were of the very highest quality.
The 2022 Rye Arts Festival was hard work, but it was most definitely worth it!
Image Credits: Kt Bruce .
You all deserve a lot of praise for your energy, time and commitment in putting together the Festival. I’m not sure people realise just how much you all do to make it so successful.
I had arranged a speaker for one of the events and arrived at the Community Centre rather anxious about what I should be doing. I needn’t have worried – the chairs were laid out, two very nice chairs from Andy and Niki’s house were on the stage for the speaker and interviewer, flowers and water were on the table. Whilst Andy and Niki unloaded the chairs they had just collected from Lamb House following an earlier event, a bar turned up as did a team of stewards. The only snag was out of their control – the speaker had trouble with the trains! But he made it in time, all went smoothly, chairs packed up, bar closed down and on to the evening event.
I heard from friends that Andy and Niki had been outside the Church to tell anyone with tickets, who hadn’t read their update, that the events at St Mary’s were cancelled.
So well done all of you for and for running it all so well and with such good humour. There is definitely an article or a podcast to be done here about the trials and tribulations of running a Festival. You were certainly unlucky with dates this year. Rye is lucky to have you.