@KirstenTElliott
The Bath International Music Festival has been and gone, Alasdair Nicolson’s second and last as Artistic Director. I have been told a fair amount about the last couple of festivals by several people closely involved, but should not repeat it here. However, at a time of change I will say that I think some of the Festival’s problems are a few years old. In 2010 the Festival was scaled back, not just in time and number of events, but also by focusing on classical music. A number of regular features of the Festival were dropped – for example, the local historian Kirsten Elliott’s walking tours of Bath. These weren’t a huge money-spinner, but cost very little to put on – no venue hire, just Kirsten’s fee – and tended to sell out. They can’t have been axed on economic grounds.
The tours are running again, but are now part of the Bath Literature Festival. And that I think is part of the problem – that the International Music Festival has been overtaken by other festivals in Bath which go on longer and have more events, and is having to compete with them for Council and other funding. It has I fear rather rested on its laurels and given up its primacy without realising it.
[October 2014: We were promised news of the 2015 Festival soon after 2014’s ended, but nothing yet, not even dates (I discount a web page which seems to think it’s going to be in March!). This doesn’t look good.]