Exciting Teamwork

RODERIC DUNNETT was in Worcester
for the 2011 Three Choirs Festival

For an exhilarating English musical experience during August (and next year, to avoid coinciding with the London Olympic Games, July), think beyond the BBC Proms: there is no more inspiring setting to experience a packed week of music events than the Three Choirs Festival, which annually alternates between the great cathedral cities of Gloucester, Hereford (in 2012), and Worcester, the last of which provided the uplifting venue for this year's intelligently-planned, friendly, visibly well-managed 2011 festival.

Welcoming visitors from abroad as well as loyalists from across Britain and the three contributing Midland counties, the Three Choirs is administered by an energetic, highly competent team. Their efficiency overlooks no detail. They include a prompt, computerised box office set-up (box office sales hit a new high), on-site volunteer-run tented catering that runs like clockwork, first-rate programme notes, well-organised Friends, a meticulously proficient front of house and background administration, along with the smartly attired stewards who marshal and shepherd the huge number of attendees at each concert...