The Bedfordshire Festival of Music, Speech and Drama, inaugurated in 1921, is well established in the town’s history books. Today, it still provides a wonderful opportunity for pupils from schools from around the county to showcase their talent in the performing arts.
This year saw boys from both our Upper School and Prep School enter the festival to perform, as ever, a wide range of classical, musical theatre and jazz pieces in the music section, and a mix of verse speaking, acting and mime performances in the speech and drama categories.
We are delighted to share their successes, in what was an incredible and enjoyable week of performances.
Music
Among our Upper music boys there were 12 winners, with two of these boys, Lower Sixth Formers Kieran Hamel-Henn and Hugo Hodgson, invited to perform at the Gala Concert, the festival’s triumphant finale showcasing some of the very best performances from the week.
In addition to the prestigious cups on offer for winners at the Gala, there are also a number of prizes awarded, and we are thrilled to report that the following two boys were awarded one of these special trophies:
- Lower Sixth Former Hugo Hodgson – The McKeown Woodwind Prize for the ‘Most Outstanding Woodwind Performance’.
- Remove Former Aryan Sohanpal – Awarded the ‘Most Promising Jazz Musician’.
See the full set of music results below.
Our musical Prep School boys also achieved incredible success – you can read: Boys Shine in Bedfordshire Festival 2024.
Speech and Drama
A small group of Upper drama boys entered the competition representing Redford School of Speech and Drama.
Lower Sixth Former Charlie Eggleton enjoyed a superb week and was invited out of 1,500 entries, to be one of the few to perform at the Gala. His dramatic monologue, a fun, physical piece I’m not Batman by Marco Ramirez, saw him win the Borough of Bedford Challenge Bowl and the Woodfine Lousada Prize for ‘The Most Outstanding Speech and Drama Performance at the Gala.
Lower Sixth Former Charlie Eggleton. Photo credit: Donna Samuels Photography – official photographer for Beds Festival.
Charlie commented, “I have been competing in the gala for about five years now, and have never won a prize, so when I received the award, I was really happy. I enjoyed the gala so much, seeing all the amazing different works in the festival, especially the other speech and drama performers – that is the best part in my opinion, better than the prizes. Nevertheless, I was overjoyed to receive the award.”