Arts charity to celebrate 80 years of festivals

An arts charity hopes to reach a record number of children as it celebrates its 80th anniversary with a string of events.

Cheltenham Festivals was founded in 1945 and has expanded from initially offering three classical music concerts in Pittville Pump Rooms, to now hosting popular literature, music, jazz, and science festivals at venues across the town.

As well as festivals, the charity offers outreach programmes in schools and hopes to introduce 80,000 children to the arts with a year-round programme of events to mark its anniversary.

Ali Mawle, co-CEO of Cheltenham Festivals, said the charity "works tirelessly... to give young people access to arts and culture".

The charity began as a post-war art festival movement and its founding event was Cheltenham Music Festival.

FameLab, set up by the charity in 2005 to bring together young people with a keen interest in science, and the FameLab Academy, set up in 2015, also celebrate anniversaries this year.

This year's FameLab competition, which involves participants sharing their scientific research with the public, will include heats in Antarctica.

The charity hopes its campaign will "spark a lifelong curiosity" for literature, music and science.

Ms Mawle told BBC Radio Gloucestershire: "It is an amazing heritage that Cheltenham has in these festivals... It is extraordinary when you think about it, and the fact [Cheltenham Music Festival] was one of the first festivals ever."

She added the charity is "more than 36 festival days a year", and reaches 20,000-30,000 children annually through the festivals themselves.

"We have an excellent relationship with our local schools and it's about enabling those young people to come to the festival site," she said of an aspect of the outreach programme, adding there would be "special events" for the Music Festival, which cannot be disclosed yet.

Cheltenham Jazz Festival 2025 is the first of the four annual festivals and will be held between 30 April - 5 May, with the science festival following in June, the music festival in July and the literature festival in October.

Together, the events attract more than 225,000 visitors a year.

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