When did the Bath Festival start?

On Friday there was the parade which in recent years has replaced the fireworks which used to start the Bath Festival (this year the fireworks returned as well!). My daughter took part in it.

But was this the start of the Festival? No, the opening concert was on Wednesday – the LSO playing Bruckner and Schubert under Colin Davis. (The date was chosen by the LSO). We had tickets but totally overlooked it until we read a review the following day and realised we’d missed it.

Now of course this was our own fault for not taking enough note of the date. But we wouldn’t I’m sure have made this mistake if we’d realised that the Festival was going to start on Wednesday. What exactly opened the Festival? Was it the concert? And if so, what was the purpose of the parade on Friday night?

There’s been some advance publicity in the form of a Facebook group for the Festival, but Facebook being what it is it concentrates mainly on events of interest to people in their 20’s (the group is classified under ‘International’ not ‘Classical’ music), and so I’ve not been following it, though I joined. And there was in item about the opening concert in the online Bath Chronicle last Thursday, but now the Chronicle appears in print only on Thursdays the vast majority of online content appears on Thursdays too and the item was buried too deep for me to see it.

Walking round Bath this week we saw little sign that the Festival was in progress apart from some small posters which had already been up for several weeks. The Festival banner which normally spans the main shopping street was not there on Friday. Other visual signs of the Festival such as the themed shop-window displays went by the board a few years ago. If the city can be transformed for a couple of months every year to persuade people to spend money before Christmas, surely the Festival can put on more of a show? I know there have been financial problems in the past but I thought these were less acute now and in any case a timely banner across Milsom St wouldn’t break the budget. If Bath is trying to market itself to visitors as the ‘Festival City’, shouldn’t it take more pride in the fact that a festival is on?

I wonder whether too much of the planning is done outside Bath now and the Festival is so concert-focused that this aspect is being neglected. My suggestion is to get some Italians involved! It’s impossible to visit a town or village in Italy where a festa is in progress or about to take place without being immediately aware of the fact.