The Festival of Chichester is nearly here!

This year's Festival of Chichester is just over a week away'“  a thrilling and varied line-up of more than 200 events for summer 2017, combining a brilliant programme of classical music with the best in jazz, blues, folk, rock, pop and world music.
The Festival committeeThe Festival committee
The Festival committee

Running from June 17-July 16, it also offers theatre, book events, talks and poetry, exhibitions, walks, tours, cinema, open days and galas.

And to get the city in the mood, the Festival of Chichester committee has once again organised a shop window display competition.

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Among those taking part will be: CrossEyes, 60 North Street; The Body Shop, 34/5 East Street; Children’s Society, 48 South Street; Buzby & Blue, 46-48 The Hornet; Chestnut Tree House, 63 North Street; Classix, 4 St Martin’s Street; and Headromance, 66 South Street. Last year’s winner was the Exclusive Cake Shop and Vintage Tea Rooms, North Street with Classix Clothing as runner-up.

This year’s adjudication will take place on Friday, June 16 with councillor, former mayor and festival trustee Anne Scicluna helping to select the winner.

Festival co-ordinator Barry Smith said: “Last year the standard was exceedingly high with brilliant, colourful entries from local businesses all out to support the city festival with imaginative and eye-catching displays. Who will rise to the challenge this year and catch the judges’ eyes to win complimentary festival tickets?”

Festival chairman Phil Hewitt said: “The shop window competition will be a fantastic way to lead into the festival this year, our fifth Festival of Chichester and definitely our best programme yet. We always aim for a clean sweep of everything that is good and interesting and happening in Chichester, with the whole festival offering a magnificent celebration of Chichester and local-area talents – a great platform for the whole community for entertain everyone else! It hardly seems possible that this is Festival of Chichester number five. But then again, we have come a long, long way since we held a public meeting in late 2012 to see whether there was any interest in staging a new-look, new-feel festival for the city the following summer. The answer was an emphatic yes.

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“Since then, we have been delighted to pull together an annual month-long arts and community extravaganza featuring all the performers, writers, artists, thinkers, groups, clubs, associations, choirs and orchestras that make Chichester so rich and vibrant a city. Our festival has become a true reflection of Chichester’s cultural importance, and we are thrilled that over the years we have also started to entice an increasingly attractive range of artists and performers from further afield.

“The festival is brought to you by a hard-working committee which meets every month to make sure all our plans come together for a golden explosion of feel-good community fun. But our success heightens everyone’s expectations, and so we are delighted to count once again on the fantastic, enthusiastic support of the Chichester Observer series. We are also privileged to receive funding once again from Chichester City Council, a council which serves the city so well. And so, once again, let the fun begin!

“Please note: we have a new box office this year: Chichester Box Office, The Novium, Tower Street, Chichester, PO19 1QH; phone 01243 816525 or 775888; website http://www.thenovium.org/boxoffice; email [email protected]. See .

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