About Us

Please Note: This is the only official site for Selston Music festival.

Thank you for visiting our website. Here is a bit of history about the origins of the festival.

Performers and Committee Members from our 70th Anniversary Concert.

Chairman Donald Grundy and Co-ordinator Sue Wardle receiving the Federation Gold Award, Nov 2013!!

Selston Music Festival began as a non-competitive music festival in 1942!! It attracted widespread interest in that year and also the following year and the enthusiasm with which the Festival was received encouraged the founder members of the committee to begin a competitive festival in 1944. In that year the competitive festival did not take the place of the non-competitive festival. Both festivals received widespread support until 1946 after which time only the competitive festival was held.

In 1946, the venue of the Festival was changed. Until this time the Miners' Welfare, with its spacious hall was the scene of the Festival but an even more commodious place was urgently needed.

In that year, the recently opened Matthew Holland Secondary School could offer much better facilities and since then this school has hosted the festival. Even so large a building proved inadequate to cater for the many and varied classes introduced, some of which had to run concurrently. An additional venue was found only one hundred yards away from the school. This was the Dove Green Methodist (Middle) Chapel whose acoustics proved excellent for both children's and adults vocal classes. Selston Music Festival has now moved once more to the Parish Hall on Mansfield Road, Selston.

Selston Music Festival has proved to be the starting point or springboard for many singers who later have attained fame, some having reached the national stage and television. Such competitors invariably began as vocalists in the class for the youngest age group after which they progressed in stages to Open Adult Classes, by which time their outstanding talents had been recognised by musicians with an eye and ear for remarkable talent.

Help has always been forthcoming from the high calibre of adjudicators who come to the Festival. The Festival has always been affiliated to the British and International Federation of Festivals for Music, Dance and Speech of which HM the Queen is patron. Only adjudicators with the highest credentials and members of the British Federation are chosen for Selston. Among these Sir David Willcocks, Sir Stuart Wilson, Dr. Sidney Northcote, Kenneth Robertson (son of Sir Hugh, the famous conductor of the Glasgow Orpheus Choir) and the distinguished composers, Michael Head and Eric Thieman come to mind, but the list seems endless.

Some forty years ago there were ten other Music Festivals within a radius of 10 miles of Selston. Sadly these have ended and invariably the financial costs accounted for their demise. Selston Festival has endured and its committee must be applauded for its willingness to introduce changes in keeping with the spirit of the times. New classes were introduced over the years and the committee has worked tirelessly in fund raising to cope with increasing costs. No Festival receives more complimentary reports. Adjudicators are deeply impressed with the remarkably high standards; a viewpoint clearly expressed in all press comments. Competitors and audience alike appreciate the friendliness of the atmosphere. The helpfulness of Committee members has cemented many long-standing friendships and the refreshments served have been described with one accord as the best and most competitively priced throughout the whole of the Festival world in the Midlands.

Selston Music Festival Committee are very proud to continue the festival which takes place in November every year.