Get your entries in for Basingstoke Music and Arts Festival (From Basingstoke Gazette)

Get your entries in for Basingstoke Music and Arts Festival

1:00am Thursday 24th November 2011 in General

TALENTED locals of all ages are encouraged to get their entries in for 2012’s Basingstoke Music and Arts Festival.

You have until January to submit your applications for the many categories including brass, piano, recorders, speech and drama, woodwind, singing and creative writing.

Children are particularly encouraged to enter the latter section, with a 50% reduction on entry fees when you submit pieces in more than one category.

The instrumental and speech and drama sections will take place in March in Sherfield School. The ensemble, band and choir sections will be held at Queen Mary’s College in the same month.

This year, there’s an extra incentive for all those who enter the creative writing categories, which encompasses short stories, poetry, letter writing, script writing and, for adults, sonnets, as all entries will be displayed at Whitchurch Silk Mill.

The works will be exhibited during the Basingstoke Festival from June 22 until July 15 alongside an exhibition of German poetry displayed in embroidered pockets by Swiss artist Regula Schnidi.

Angela Hurley is now president of Basingstoke Music and Arts Festival, having taken over from long-serving president and former mayor John Greenwood who passed away in February of this year.

Mrs Hurley wishes to campaign for the celebration of the written word.

She said: “In an age dominated by texts and emails there is a need to take a step back and consider the contribution made by British authors, creating some of the most beautiful and powerful literature the world has seen, and take inspiration to encourage the continuation of this tradition.”

Full entry details of the festival are available at your local library and online at basingstokemusicfestival.hampshire.org.uk.

All creative writing entries should be sent to Stephen Bryer at Whitchurch Silk Mill,28 Winchester Street, Whitchurch, Hants RG28 7AL by January 9. The closing date for other sections is January 31.

*Basingstoke Music and Arts Festival is appealing for the return of a missing shield. The Roy Hurley Shield for composition has been lost and the festival’s organisers would like previous winners to check their homes and lofts.

If you have any information, contact Stephen Bryer on 01256 892065 or e-mail stephen.bryer@ btinternet.com.