I wrote to a Cathedral recently proposing that one of my choirs came and sang a weekend of services, and was rather startled to receive a reply that they are not accepting visiting choirs there ‘for the forseeable future’. (Despite the fact that there is a page for them, with a downloadable information leaflet, on the Cathedral website.)
I’ve never had this happen before and presumably there is some problem with visiting choirs in the past that lies behind this policy. I don’t know who imposed it, when it happened or what reason if any was given, let alone the underlying reason if that is different. Maybe there was no announcement, leaving the congregation wondering why there were more said services out of term time than there used to be. I have heard that (not surprisingly) some at the Cathedral are unhappy with this situation and would like to start welcoming visiting choirs again. Trying to stand back and be objective, surely the benefits of having choral services year-round, which include retaining more of the congregation, must outweigh the drawback of administrative workload.
I believe it may be because of a problem with the new organ there.