00:00Good morning, my name is Phil Kewitt, Group Arts Editor for Sussex Newspapers. Always
00:06a real pleasure to speak to Andrew Bernardi, but now, this year, really significant. This
00:11is the 25th anniversary of the Shipley Arts Festival. Andrew, you created it, you must
00:17feel enormously proud to reach this landmark. What does that landmark mean to you, 25 years?
00:25Thank you, Phil, so much for your typical generosity and your support, I think, throughout
00:31almost all the 25 years.
00:34Your father, kind of.
00:37I feel younger, and I feel younger because I feel we've connected and joined up so many
00:47parts of our county. The Festival Friends, the four brilliant sponsors we have, Tuviz,
00:56Nightingbird, Creston Rees and NFU Mutual for Horsham and Chichester. Through this network,
01:03through these Friends, we've inspired literally several thousand people to find music and
01:12the love and warmth that brings to the relationships that we share. I feel very deeply grateful
01:21that everyone supported that vision and that we have more new great music in the world.
01:27We have a Stradivarius violin, which I'm holding, which symbolises all these works. This violin
01:32is all the investors, all 30 except for one, come from Sussex. So, the violin is a walking
01:40symbol of that deeply rooted nature of our music making. I'm obviously very proud of
01:48the comments from our preview on Sunday, when Rupert Tuvi, one of our Deputy Lord Lieutenants,
01:56very generously spoke about the impact this regional festival with international links
02:03has had on our communities. So, I'm deeply grateful for everyone's support.
02:08You were saying earlier how impossible it is to set up a festival, how difficult, and yet
02:15this festival established itself relatively quickly. That suggests that it really was answering a need, wasn't it?
02:24I think so. Thank you for saying that. I think so. I think the need for spiritual nourishment,
02:32artistic expression, all the transactional things we're involved in, be it buying a pint in the pub,
02:39or buying a car, or whatever we do, those moments are transactional. The thing that brings those
02:47moments value is the friendships around it, the connection. Those things bring true value
02:56to our lives, and music is the highest form of intelligence that we're able to express
03:05as humans, and that is what we've given birth to through the festival. There was a gap in the
03:11market, which I did see, but it's the way we've, not filled, but the way we've been generous in
03:18that space, that's the difference. I've come to realise that the other two festivals which
03:26I'm aware are similarly deeply rooted, the Leith Hillym that Vaughan Williams founded, and also
03:32Aubrey with Benjamin Britton, who also was very, very deeply connected in Sussex, at Lansing College.
03:39Those musicians, those two musicians, were similarly building in a very similar way,
03:46and so I'm just very grateful. We really do have, we've performed at Goodwood,
03:53the Duke of Richmond generously said it was the finest music they've ever had on this stage.
03:57We've been at Lansing many times, at Lansing College, and stretching right across the country
04:03states, churches, and I've this year, for the first time actually, all three pubs in Shipley,
04:09and how lucky are we to have three pubs in one parish, the largest parish with the
04:15smallest population, but it emanates out, and as you probably know, we've got
04:21fantastic links into China, Hong Kong, I'm going to Hong Kong as well,
04:25and India, the High Commissioners, we've performed at the Embassy before Christmas.
04:31This year you start on March the 2nd, and you have 14 events, that's quite something, isn't it?
04:37We do, we do. It's 14 events, our roots are here, and that's what's different. We're not interested
04:43in suddenly becoming a Mayfair festival, or a London fair, or anything like that.
04:48Our music making is deeply rooted here, and we take that journey, those values I've just described,
04:53we take those around the world, but this is our home. And March the 2nd,
04:58Opera Gala, with some wonderful musicians who will make you smile for sure.
05:04Brilliant. Well, congratulations on the quarter century. It's a massive,
05:09significant achievement. Well done. Lovely to speak to you.
05:12Thank you, thank you. We're just very proud, and thank heavens it was difficult to start,
05:18because it meant we had the determination to push through that pandemic, as one of the only
05:23festivals in the country that was able to do that. It was determination, and faith, belief,
05:28and more importantly, support from everybody from Arts Council England, through our four sponsors.
05:33But that wide base of festival friends that remain committed to the vision,
05:38that we're looking forward to carrying into our 26th year next year as well.
05:43Well congratulations. And onwards.
05:44Good to speak to you, thanks.
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