Selsey Festival’s packed programme

It’s an important year for the festival (August 6-27) – an anniversary which allows everyone involved to look back on a story of great success.

Co-ordinator Sue Graves is delighted at the way it has developed to become so well-loved a part of the Selsey calendar.

“I can’t believe it really,” Sue says. “I don’t know where the time has gone. But we are really excited that we get telephone calls from people wanting to book their holiday here around the Festival. People really enjoy it, and it is amazing that it is still going after ten years.

“In the first year, people probably didn’t really know what to expect. I had moved down from London as a colleague had, and we had had festivals up there. We knew what they could be like. We just felt that there was so much talent in Selsey that a festival would be a good way to put Selsey on the map. Being at the end of a peninsula, it does tend to get a bit forgotten.”

Sue added: “We are lucky that we have got a very stoic committee. And we are lucky that in fact most of our events organise themselves and we just provide a co-ordinational role to prevent events bumping into each other. If you have got eight events in one day, they might suffer. But if I can spread them out over three weeks then it is much better. If we can co-ordinate the events over different days, then it is much better for everyone.”

Many of the events have sprung up specifically for the Festival, the beer and rounders event, for instance, organised by the cricket club and now very much a fixture in the programme.

Also key to the success each year is the Festival’s own End Of The Pier variety show bringing together Selsey’s two drama groups, SACOS and Cloud 9 (Friday, August 17 and Saturday, August 18).

But there is always room for innovation, and this year Sue is delighted to be including Selsey’s very own Olympics with a sporty theme to the festivities.

For full programme see http://selseyfestival.moonfruit.com/ or contact the Festival co-ordinator Sue Graves on 01243 602260 or email [email protected].