St Dunstan’s Festival

SPECIAL EVENTS

St Dunstan’s Festival

Over the past seven years the Festival has grown, developed and become a mainstay of the school calendar, celebrating everything we are at St Dunstan’s. This year saw more than 160 events take place over the course of 12 days, including some outstanding performances from the Music and Drama Departments.

Some of the mainstage highlights were our first Festival Shakespeare in the form of A Midsummer Night’s Dream and the energetic and colourful year 6 production of Chitty Chitty Bang Bang. The Festival Concert spectacularly brought themes from Movies and Television to life ending with a massed choir of over 150 students singing from The Lion King. We had some Festival firsts this year that we hope will grow into regular events. The International Evening saw students and staff show off traditional clothing from their respective cultures, guests could sample food from around the world and wander around a gallery of artefacts and costume. The Community Sings saw local choirs come together to stage a concert in the Festival Big Top and several events featured students from other school as we open the doors of the Festival wider to share the amazing opportunities we have here at St Dunstan’s. We welcomed guest artists, speakers, and workshop leaders to really elevate the experience of students, parents and the public, notably with a talk from the Director of the National Gallery, Gabriele Finaldi and a masterclass and concert with professional jazz saxophonist, Camilla George. Keeping everyone informed and entertained each morning was our live broadcast of Festival TV, presented by Ralph Arrigoni, Joe O’Connor Coffey, Leo Beckman and Ed Burrows. More than 700 students took part and over 4,500 tickets were booked for the activities, performances, and workshops. Planning is already underway to make the 2023 Festival even bigger and wider reaching, offering a unique experience to students at the College and the wider communities of Catford and the Borough of Lewisham.

Mr R Gregg

Festival Director