Previous Festivals

Past Festivals

The Budleigh Music Festival started life as the Budleigh Salterton Festival in 2005, when visionaries Roger and Brenda Bowen founded an annual arts festival in this small seaside town.

The aim of the first few Festivals was to deliver a great variety of musical performance and artistic activity, featuring two daily concerts, folk music at Otterton Mill, visits from Imperial College Opera Students, talks, a river trip, garden parties and art exhibitions. Following the success of those early days, the Festival has diverged and grown into a separate Literary Festival and a Music Festival, which since 2012 has focused on a classical music repertoire.

From its inception the Music Festival has sought to bring musicians of international standing to Budleigh Salterton. It has also focused on encouraging young musicians, and regularly showcases ‘BBC Young Musician’ winners with an international career ahead of them. In addition, the Festival aims each year to highlight talented young musicians from the South West; these are featured at the popular free lunchtime concerts where a supportive audience helps them to develop their repertoires and performance skills. The lunchtime concerts also provide a platform for a wider range of music. Recent years have featured medieval instruments, the Devon Junior Choir, organ recitals, brass band players – as well as vocal and instrumental recitals.

With the increasing support and help from within the community, the Festival continues to attract large audiences from Budleigh Salterton and further afield.