Festival of Chichester president Kate Mosse launches this year's Festival

The 2025 Festival of Chichester is now up and running!

Transcript

00:00Thank you very much Dean and welcome to everybody. It's so fantastic to see so many people here

00:05and maybe it's the cathedral but it is not raining so you have worked your magic. I'm very

00:11lucky to be the president of the Festival of Chichester. The Festival of Chichester is an

00:15extraordinary thing in that it is a celebration for all of the arts by the people of Chichester

00:22and for the people of Chichester. So for a month there will be theatre, there will be music,

00:27there will be sculpture, there will be spoken word and it will be everybody here who makes those

00:33things happen as well as bringing in some of the most extraordinary people from all over the country

00:38to speak and to sing and to entertain us. Now it's a really unusual thing for me to be standing here

00:44as part of the 950 celebrations because I'm sure there are some of you of the same age as me

00:50but I was part of the Chichester 900 celebrations on this screen 50 years ago and it was about about

00:58here that we had a maypole and we did maypole dancing. So if you want to relax a little, if you

01:06want to show us your artistic and creative attitude, go to that pole and you can start our own informal

01:14kind of flash mob maple dancing. There are many brochures for the Festival of Chichester, there are

01:20many other extraordinary local things, there's Pride, there's Chichester Canal, there are things

01:25going on all the afternoon and I hope you'll support all of the Festival of Chichester things

01:29and the cathedral things. But just a final thought before I release you all back to your celebrating

01:35and your entertaining is this, that we know that we live in very odd and challenging times,

01:41we live in very fractured times. But the arts, the cathedral, this city of Chichester is about

01:49everybody being allowed to be the person they want to be. It's the fact that the arts can tell a

01:55different story from the things that we are seeing every day on the news. They talk about empathy and

02:02kindness and brilliance and celebration and the things that make the world good, make us part of a shared

02:11story. So every time we turn on the news and we feel a little bit of despair, go and pick up a book,

02:18come to the cathedral, go to the assembly rooms, go to Fishbourne Roman Palace, go to the art gallery,

02:23let ourselves be nourished by the things that matter and will last longer than any particular

02:29terrible things that are happening at the moment. Because words are our one defence against the

02:35misinformation of history. And words and music and arts and celebration and faith are the things that

02:43bring us together. And we, the people who believe in these things, are stronger than some of the people

02:50who are shouting loudest at the moment. It's why the arts matter. It's why these incredible

02:56celebrations matter. So enjoy the rest of the day. Enjoy Chichester 950. Enjoy the Festival of

03:04Chichester and all of the wonderful local organisations that make Chichester, well in my

03:09very biased opinion, the best place to live in the country. Thank you very much and enjoy the day.