Sponsorship.

2007 marked the 24th International Organ Festival at St Albans. It is the longest established and most prestigious International Music Festival and Organ Competition in the world. Founded in 1963, it currently takes place every second year.

Behind the Festival lies a strong commitment towards musical education for everyone, especially for young people, and it has nurtured the careers and personal development of many young organists from the UK and abroad. Its reputation for promoting excellence and the highest degree of artistic achievement and quality is acknowledged worldwide.

The Festival

The next Festival takes place from 9th to 18th July 2009 in the City of St Albans, predominantly in the magnificent Norman Cathedral, and other venues in this historic city. The Festival engages musicians, artists and performers of the highest calibre from all around the world as well as from the UK. The Festival’s fine reputation attracts audiences of local people and visitors from abroad, who come to St Albans to hear music of the highest quality, ranging from organ and orchestral concerts, chamber and choral music, to jazz and cabaret, performed in beautiful buildings with excellent acoustics. At its core are the two organ competitions, for performance and improvisation, which have made the Festival and the City of St Albans synonymous with excellence around the world.

Our Supporters

The membership of the Society which lies behind the Festival currently stands at some 550, the highest ever. Members support the Festival both financially and by giving their skills and time, helping to reduce operating costs. They and their families and friends also provide a core for the large audiences which Festival events attract. Many other people with no direct involvement in the Festival Society also help with a wide range of tasks because they value the Festival and the part it plays in the life of the City. The Festival has no full time staff and operates from a one room office.

Our Audience

Research into the profile of the Festival's audience tells us that by associating your business with the International Organ Festival at St Albans, you will be reaching those people who make or influence decisions locally and those who shape and mould the local environment, both economically and socially. Audiences are drawn from Herts, Beds, Bucks, Middlesex and Greater London, as well as a sprinkling from the rest of the UK and overseas.

Publicity

The 2009 Festival will be publicised widely. As a Festival Partner, your company name will appear in over 50,000 Festival Brochures that are distributed within the locality and further afield. More than 15,000 flyers and handbills are distributed and over 150 posters are prominently displayed. A media campaign secures wide coverage for the Festival with local media and features in many regional and national newspapers, magazines, journals and on Radio and Television. Festival events are also advertised in concert brochures in London. As a sponsor your company name and logo will appear on the Festival's Website with direct links to your own Website if desired, and in the Festival's Souvenir Programme.

We believe that there's a real opportunity here for businesses - like yours - to own and take pride in a Festival that equates with worldwide quality and excellence in eyes of the global community of organ and music lovers - the unique selling point of this Festival. Your support can help to ensure the continuance of something which has been fundamental to the cultural life of St Albans over the past 40 years and which has promoted the musical and personal development of some of the the world's best young organists during that time.