Cancelled: England's 104 year old Tynedale Music Festival

England's 104 year old Tynedale Music Festival was canceled this year . . . for a lack of participation. It may be indicative of a trend away from quality music education in the country.

From the Hexham Courant:

Organisers shocked the district last week by announcing that the festival had been canceled for the first time since the outbreak of the Second World War.

Remarkably, in a district which is brimming with vocal and instrumental talent, not enough people have entered Tynedale's most prestigious music event for it to go ahead.

Just 12 months ago a healthy 341 competitors lined up, but this year fewer than 200 musicians bothered to show an interest.

The future looks bleak, but organisers have already started a campaign to re-launch the festival next year.

Festival secretary Christine Walsh said: "It has been a wonderful institution for over 100 years and it seems tragic that we should be wondering if it is going to continue in the future.

"The number of entries was very low, which was a huge disappointment to us all.

"It is not just the number of entries we need to increase. We really do need help on the organisation side of things; we need more committee members."

Mrs Walsh believes that a number of factors contributed to a lack of interest for this year's festival."

"Schools have always been tremendous supporters of the event. In the past they were able to allow pupils to practise their music playing during school time."

"But things are different now. There are curriculum requirements and other pressures on schools and teachers, and they don’t have the same freedom now."

Full article here.