FESTIVAL FOrEVEr

FESTIVAL FOrEVEr is the cornerstone project of the Festival’s 250th anniversary celebrations. As a volunteer led project, it aims to research, record, and celebrate the history of Norfolk & Norwich Festival and the people whose lives it has touched.

Phase 1 of the project saw volunteers research the first 100 years of the Festival, including its founding as a fundraiser for Norfolk & Norwich Hospital. with training from Norfolk records Office and Norfolk Heritage Centre, the volunteers produced an exhibition of their research at the Museum of Norwich at The Bridewell during the 2022 Festival.

In Phase 2 of the project, volunteers are continuing their research, now spanning the whole 250 years. They are working alongside a group of young people from the MINT project to turn this research into films, podcasts, animations, and oral histories.

Phase 3 will see the project come to a head with the creation of the ‘Festival Chronicle’. This website will allow the public to access the entire history of the Festival through entertaining and engaging content, using the volunteer’s research and young people’s creative outputs.

The Festival Chronicle will be updated year on year, adding highlights to the rich collection of Festival history.

Hear from the volunteers themselves!

“I’m really enjoying sorting through archive material and making it more easily accessible, and the idea of researching past Festivals really appealed to me.”

Lesley-Anne Hewett, Festival Supporter and project volunteer