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; The Dorking Halls was built to house the Festival and opened in 1931; 'Song for a Spring Festival', written by RVW to celebrate the Festival's 50th year, may only be performed at the Festival; RVW retired as Festival Conductor in 1953, but continued to conduct the St Matthew Passion until 1958; Whilst living in Dorking, RVW composed works including Serenade to Music, Symphonies 4 - 7 and The Pilgrim's Progress; RVW conducted the first combined choirs concert at the Festival on 10 May 1905; The first competition day at the Festival exclusively for children was held in 1921; In 1934 the BBC broadcast part of the Festival performance of Dream of Gerontius; The first Festival performance of the St Matthew Passion in 1931 had 800 singers;

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Events and tickets

Festival Update

Support Us

Throughout history, great music has needed generous support, not just for survival, but to make performances available to all rather than the preserve of the wealthy, and indeed a guiding principle of the Festival's founders was that music should be accessible to singers from all walks of life. Most of our income is generated from ticket sales and choir entry fees. We also sell programmes and advertising space and are always on the look out for potential sponsors. There is then a funding gap each year that we have to find ourselves by running fund raising enterprises such as the Friends and Patrons scheme, cake sales, bridge teas, sponsored events etc.

Take a look at the ways in which you could support the Festival: