In celebrating the 150^th birthday of Gloucestershire composer, Ralph Vaughan Williams, the festival is working with community organisations and schools from across the region to take part in our inter-disciplinary creative arts project.

Community groups have signed up to receive a series of free workshops from a local creative expert, with mini-projects across multiple artistic disciplines, including but not limited to, music, visual art, spoken word, dance and photography. Taking inspiration from Vaughan-Williams’ most famous work, “The Lark Ascending”, our aim is to bring together contributions of art forms from schools and communities in our “What the Lark Saw” project.

All of the contributions we collect will be brought together organically for a grand showcase in Gloucester Cathedral on Wednesday 26^th July at 11am, the core of which will be a new commission of Four Songs by Gloucestershire composer Liz Lane, performed by a massed children’s choir from Gloucestershire. Liz will draw ideas from the products of the workshops, creating an integrated performance piece which represents all the participating community members.

The deadline for taking part in 2023 has now passed, but you can write to Participation Co-Ordinator Hannah Bowman to register your interest for participation in 2024.