Cheltenham Music Festival doubles audience in “joyful” 80th year

Cheltenham Music Festival’s 80th season saw a doubling of its audience year-on-year, capping a vibrant anniversary year that saw world-class classical music of all varieties return to the Gloucestershire town.

The birthday celebrations included dames of the realm, stars of Britain’s Got Talent, BBC orchestras, local choirs and more than 800 schoolchildren all take to the stage. It was a refreshing, vital way for the Festival to enter is 90th decade, say organisers.

“To see so many thousands attend our concerts, recitals, gigs and workshops has been so joyful,” says the Festival’s Artistic Director, Jack Bazalgette. “It’s been a real tribute to the quality of our performers and programme – but also, I think, to the esteem and affection in which Cheltenham is still held, eighty years on.”

International Excellence

The doubling of audiences since 2024 reflects a sense of renewed energy around the Festival in Bazalgette’s inaugural year at Cheltenham.

The Times gave the Festival’s opening concerts four stars, praising their “quality and ambition,” while the Telegraph, reviewing the Festival’s closing celebration by the BBC National Orchestra of Wales, called it “madly entertaining.” Numerous full houses, from Gloucester Cathedral and Pittville Pump Room to DEYA Brewery and Cheltenham Town Hall, attested to this mix of excellence and excitement.

Performers from across the world gracing Cheltenham’s stages in its birthday year, including Seckou Keita from Senegal, the Vision String Quartet from Germany, Uruguay’s Santiago Sanchez and the Mediterranean-focused Idrîsî Ensemble. The Festival has reaffirmed the town and county’s place as a centre of the international classical music calendar.

Pianist Imogen Cooper, who performed at the Festival this year, said, “It’s a pleasure to see Cheltenham doing so well in its eightieth year. Festivals are so important to the health of classical music more generally, and seeing this one thriving again is hugely welcome.”

Community and Connection

A core strand of the Festival’s anniversary was its focus on work in its local community. A Relaxed Concert for Families was held at the Festival for the first time thanks to the support of Attivo, offering appropriate access to classical music for families with at least one member expressing an additional need. Tickets were just £5.

The annual Concert for Schools and Relaxed Concert for Schools welcomed more than 800 children to Cheltenham Town Hall to enjoy professional classical music performances – and experience the musicians’ instruments themselves, too.

The aim is to inspire the next generation of music fans. A free ‘… around town’ programme also brought evocative performances to the shops, streets and bars of Cheltenham, demonstrating the joys of classical music to crowds of all kinds across the Festival’s final weekend.

Among the Festival's audience-goers was Elizabeth Jacobs, a devoted Cheltenham Festivals’ Patron who, at 92 years old, has attended every Cheltenham Music Festival since 1946. As the Festival celebrated its 80th anniversary last week, Elizabeth’s enduring support emphasises that classical music is more than performance, but acts as a living bridge across generations.

“The Next 80 Years”

From Dame Sarah Connolly and Canadian opera star Gerald Finley to BBC Radio 3’s Friday Night Is Music Night, classical music royalty stood up for Cheltenham in its special year.

And new stars – from Britain’s Got Talent favourites Braimah and Isata Kanneh-Mason to guitar virtuoso Alexandra Williams (“mesmerising,” Thoroughly Good) and trumpet Aaron Akugbo (“admirable cool,” Three In A Bar) – also filled the town’s venues with a vision of the future.

“Our ability to bring world-class talent to our concerts has really fused this year with our focus on broadening access to and interest in classical music to create a really brilliant anniversary year,” says Bazalgette.

“To see the audience grow so much gives us real excitement for our ninth decade! There’s just something so special about Cheltenham and Gloucestershire ... they are just so well set up for a music festival.

"We're going strong – and we'll be here for the next 80 years, no doubt."