An arts festival is a celebration of the arts, a platform for performance and a forum in which to bring entertainment and knowledge to the general public.

Amateur Festivals originated in the early 1800s and took the form of 'competition' festivals. The first half of the nineteenth century was a time of great development in the UK. In 1840 Queen Victoria had become Queen and the era was known as the Victorian era. Under Prime Ministers, Disraeli and Gladstone education became universal, trade unions were legalised and the right to vote was established for some men. (Women did not get the vote until after the First World War).

The general public were beginning to have more of a say in the way they worked and made recreation. In 1847 the Factory Act limited a working day to ten hours - illustrating a fairer deal for workers and more time for leisure.

In 1851 there was the Great Exhibition at Crystal Palace. This exhibition was brought about by the success of the French Industrial Exposition of 1844 and it was suggested to the British Government that a similar exhibition in the UK would benefit British industry. The British Government were less than enthusiastic about the idea but Prince Albert, husband of Queen Victoria was very enthusiastic and had a vision of an exhibition which would bring together all nations and would be 'a great collection of works in art and industry' which he said would be for the purposes of exhibition, of competition and of encouragement. Such an Exhibition, he said, "would afford a true test of the point of development at which the whole of mankind has arrived in this great task, and a new starting point from which all nations would be able to direct their further exertions"

The Society of Arts started organising such an exhibition and negotiated with a builder to erect a building to hold such an event. Prize money of £20,000 was offered - this money was going to be raised from entrance fees to the exhibition. A deputation was sent all around the country to organise support and the Government, realising industry and the public were keen on such an idea were forced to set up a Royal Commission.

The Royal Commission met for the first time in January 1850 and decided such an exhibition would prove worthwhile. A huge banquet was held at the Mansion House and every Mayor in the country attended along with Prince Albert, Sir Robert Peel, the Archbishop of Canterbury, Lords Russell and Stanley, and the French ambassador. This meeting led to the setting up of the 'The Commissioners for the Exhibition of 1851’. Crystal Palace was erected and enabled over 700,000ft of exhibition space, creating an exhibition larger than anything the French had ever managed to organise.

On May 1st, 1851 Queen Victoria opened the Great Exhibition and over six million people visited the exhibition which held products of industrial art from countries all over the world. Exhibits included Russian cloths, hats and carpets, French articles of vertu and ornamental furniture, plate, bronzes and china, furniture, and carpets, jewels, laces, gloves and rich embroideries. Belgium exhibited furniture, carpets and machinery. Persia, Greece, Egypt, and Turkey, Spain, Portugal, Madeira and Italy, India, Africa, Canada, the West Indies all exhibited their arts.

The French won most of the awards and the spirit of competition, achievement and festival had begun.

It should be noted that art-industry festivals had taken place before the Great Exhibition but were only local affairs. In 1849 the British Society organised an exhibition of manufactured goods which took place in a specially constructed exhibition space in Birmingham. In the same year the first exhibition of British Manufacturers took place - the exhibits were mainly precious metalwork.

The tradition of 'festivals' was really establised in the North of England. They had begun holding competitions for vocal quartets and the first festivals concentrated on music.

The first recorded 'festival' was the Workington Festival in Cumbria in 1869 which included a band, a malel choir and then a festival.

Festivals were organised for people to exhibit their skills, compete and to provide something useful to occupy their spare time. During the war, children evacuees who attended school for only half a day were offered a number of leisure activities, such as dance, poetry, painting and music and a 'festival' was created in order for the children to perform the new skills and interests they had developed. A number of festivals, still held to day, owe their origin to this initiative. Today schoolchildren are encouraged to take part in festivals and are offered the opportunity to perform and learn.

In 1882 National Music Meetings were held at the Crystal Palace and then begun the Stratford and East London Festival.

In 1885 it was Mary Wakefield, daughter of a Cumbrian landowner, on whose land music competitions took place, who created an idea of a Federation of Festivals.

In 1904 Lady Mary Trefusis and Mary Wakefield held a successful meeting to form an "Association of Competition Festivals"

Ralph Vaughan Williams, Sir Edward Elgar, Sir Adrian Boult, Gustav Holst, Sir Granville Bantock, C Armstrong Gibbs - all important names in the field of music played a very important part in creating festivals. Ralph Vaughan Williams begun the Leith Hill Musical Festival in 1905.

Festivals are now a part of English life. The British Federation of Festivals today play a very important part in keeping the spirit of music and dance festivals alive.

In 1996 they organised the National Competition which involved 300 festivals throughout the UK, Ireland and the Channel Islands. One performance from each festival was selected in order to create a Festival of Festivals which took place at the University of Warwick in July 1996.

Festivals that are held today fall into a number of categories:

Jazz Festivals. Music Festivals. Literature Festivals. Folk Festivals. Fringe Festivals. Town Festivals. Dance Festivals

All are a celebration of the arts and should be appreciated and visited by the public. Go to Arts Festivals (Click) to see a listing of festivals in the UK for the year 2001.