We hope you and your families are well. It has been a strange and troubling spring but as the summer begins and lockdown eases, we are knuckling down and getting plans for Canterbury Festival 2020 back on course.

Over the coming weeks we will be making more detailed announcements about the Festival programme, our on-sale dates and the measures we will be taking to ensure that our live events are delivered safely.

We have had some amazing submissions to this year’s Poet of the Year Competition and Musicians’ Bursary Award – we look forward to sharing these with you this autumn. There is also still time to submit poems to this year’s Under 18s Poetry Competition – just visit our news page to find out more and download our creative resource pack.

The Festival Friends have been busy planning a number of much-needed fundraising events scheduled during August, including the Barham Court Picnic and Concert, and an antiques valuation day with wine tasting. We will be carefully observing Government advice regarding social distancing and have our fingers crossed that these events will be able to go ahead.

These are incredibly hard times for the arts industry and especially for small charities like ourselves. If you are able to support the Festival by making a donation, becoming a Festival Friend or by attending a fundraising event  – you will be helping us to weather the storm and continue to deliver arts events and activities in Canterbury and beyond.