About the Festival
Burford and The Burford Festival
Thousands of people visit Burford every year to admire its handsome buildings and the celebrated view. They see what may just appear to be a sleepy Cotswold town, but this is not the whole picture. Our community consists of professionals, traders and craftsmen whose roots here go back for more than a century, people from the nearby villages who use the town’s services and help to run its shops and businesses, families with young children, teenagers from the school boarding house, as well as weekenders and those enjoying retirement.
With all these elements, Burford is a vibrant and friendly community maintaining more shops, businesses and charities than many places several times its size.
The Festival aims to build on this font of local goodwill and citizenship to promote the social cohesion of our town and the surrounding villages by offering a range of activities and entertainment to appeal to every part of the community. It tries to give us all the opportunity to widen our horizons by sampling new experiences at affordable prices. The Burford Festival was launched in 2001 and is run every two years entirely by volunteers. Any surplus funds raised, beyond what is needed to provide for future events, is distributed for the benefit of local community charities and projects.
The Objectives of The Festival
The Burford Festival is a registered charity (Registered Charity No. 1091720) and a Company Limited by Guarantee (No. 4391281) whose objectives are for the public benefit:
- the advancement of knowledge and for the understanding of the arts in Burford by establishing and supporting festivals in particular but not exclusively of culture, fine arts, music, drama, dance, literature, science, heritage, horticulture and handicrafts
- the promotion of good citizenship and civic responsibility in particular but not exclusively by the making of grants and the provision of support to youth groups and youth centres, sporting events, educational activities and community entertainments in Burford and/or the surrounding districts for the benefit of their inhabitants
- the advancement of knowledge and understanding of the historic heritage of Burford and the promotion of the conservation, preservation and improvement of the physical environment of Burford including in particular but not exclusively the making of grants and provision of support to local heritage, preservation and conservation organisations.
For further information please contact Sara Hall, 2024 Organising Committee Chairman:
admin@burfordfestival.org