This guide to organising a Festival for the Federation of Cathedral Old Choristers’ Associations came into effect in 2021. For anyone who has been associated with the Federation for any time, they will see that this is a much simplified guide from previous versions.
Annual gatherings have been held by the Federation since its formation in 1910 and have changed over the years. Until the 1980s, the event was centred around the AGM but, in the 1980s, this was separated out to provide an additional opportunity to meet each year. Over time, the Festival has become a significant event spread over 3 days – Friday to Sunday – and requires much planning and resources to bring it to fruition. In recent years we have witnessed falling interest and attendance at both this event and the AGM, which has given rise to a revised approach.
Hosting a Festival is a chance to let other former choristers enjoy the delights of your city / town, your Cathedral / church & its musical tradition. It is also an opportunity to celebrate, especially if your Association or Cathedral is marking a special event or anniversary. It doesn’t matter if your Association is large or small. It need only take a few of you to make the arrangements & run a successful event but, obviously, the more people involved, the easier it will be. It is recommended to involve your Cathedral’s Dean and Chapter, or senior clergy in other places, (though, not necessarily their direct involvement) and, of course, the Director of Music / Organist. Their support and input needs to be in place at the outset of any plans.
To break with tradition, we want you to decide the format of the event you wish to hold. We suggest it should focus on one day (Saturday). Some delegates may wish to arrive on Friday and stay through until Sunday and enjoy a whole weekend in your city / town but it is necessary only to offer a programme of activities for just the one day. It may be appropriate for you to invite the Federation to share your annual gathering. Cathedrals, especially, are busy places these days and holding one former chorister event in a year rather than two may help with availability.
We have only one request; that there is a choral evensong sung by the present choir. You may also wish to offer a formal meal, lunch or dinner, at which there might be a guest speaker. Delegates at past Festivals have also enjoyed the opportunity to sing with the choir at the evensong, which would require suitable rehearsal time to be built into the schedule.
Other activities which you might consider are:
A tour of the Cathedral, Church, School, College, Chapel and / or local historical area.
An organ recital.
Less formal activities such as hand bell ringing or a visit to the organ loft.
A talk by a notable person.
Our recommendation is to start the planning process as far ahead of the date as possible. The first thing to do is to check the year you are planning to offer has not already been taken by another Association by contacting the Secretary. As we’ve said, cathedrals and churches are busy places with many calls on their resources. You will want to ensure no other events are going to take place on the day of the Festival and so booking the date with the music department (Director of Music) clergy and the administration team comes high on the priority list. Although planning 2 or 3 years ahead is recommended, we have had successful events arranged in not much more than a year.
Next, establish an organising committee and nominate one person to be the conduit with the Federation. That person will be invited to attend Executive Committee meetings in the year prior to your Festival to keep us informed of progress.
Once the organising committee has been established, thought can be given to the programme for the Festival, catering requirements and guest speaker(s) for the meal (in the past called the Banquet). Your committee may also wish to give thought to any entertainment that might be provided at the meal or between evensong and dinner, if it is to be an evening event.
It is not necessary for you to make any arrangements for accommodation or transport. Delegates will make their own arrangements, though, it would be helpful if you were able to provide a list a recommended hotels and, if at all possible, arrange any special rates you may be able to secure.
The date needs to be in people’s diaries at the earliest opportunity. As soon as you have agreed the year with the Secretary it will be included in our future events list on our website and we will include them in the next newsletter.
You will need to decide if booking is to be done using online booking form, ideally linked directly into a payment platform to make reconciliation easier.
The promotion of your event should be included in the edition of Once a Chorister magazine in year prior to your event, and ideally the year before that too. Once a Chorister is published on-line, usually in November and the copy deadline is the end of October. Your article might include an invitation to the event from the Dean / Director of Music / Association Chairman, information about the choir / organ / music team, information of the history of the Cathedral / church / town / local places of interest and anything else you think will attract visitors to your town / city.
We can embed your online booking form into our website (subject to compatability) and also link to your own booking website if you have one.
You might also consider printing copies of the invitation with booking details that can be distributed at the Festival in the year prior to your planned event.
GDPR presents a number of challenges for organisations such as ourselves. We ask associations hosting Festivals to make available the contact details (email address) of those who have attended a Festival. This often proves difficult as many Cathedrals and churches, where they are the data manager for the former chorister association, require positive approval for data to be passed on. Where possible, we ask for the booking form to have a tick-box to opt out of the delegate’s email address being passed to the next Festival host and a second tick-box for those not wishing their name and association to be included in the attendees list distributed to delegates.
Delegates will need to wear a Federation Membership card. Those who have not attended before or who have lost their card will need to order another one directly from the Federation together with a lanyard and holder, at least two weeks before the event. Please mention this in the invitation and booking form and refer delegates to the Membership page here on our website.
As the costs of each element of the event will need to be on the booking form, it makes sense to agree a budget at an early stage of the planning process. If the event is part of your own annual gathering, you will be doing this anyway but, if it is a stand-alone event you will need to set a price for the meal and determine the cost of any other activities.
In the cost per person for the meal, you will need to include not only the cost of the food but, where appropriate, the cost of any room hire, wine and other drinks, non-paying guests, hire of any equipment i.e. sound system, piano, lighting etc.
Our overall advice is, to attract the largest number of delegates, keep your costs reasonable but ensure a modest profit is able to be made. We would expect the dinner to be in the prcie range of £40 to £75 for a three course meal with around 3 options for each course.
Any profit made should be split 50:50 between the organising association and the Federation. The association can use its profit share as it sees fit (such as supporting subsequent events, growing the association or supporting the local choir). The Federation will use the profit share provided to fund future work to enhance ability to deliver on our aims, objectives and mission.
Please do remember that you are not on your own; there is plenty of help available to provide advice and guidance. First and foremost, the Executive Committee is very keen for your event to be a resounding success and may be contacted at any time to discuss any concern you may have. It is also worthwhile making contact with previous years’ hosts. They will be able to provide guidance on attendance numbers and, hopefully, attendee lists, as well as programmes, booking forms, advice on the booking processes and other items that will affect your budget.
For those who have not previous organised events of this sort, below is an outline for a Festival Weekend. As we said at the beginning of this guide, the shape of the event is entirely your choice and this programme is for guidance only and is based on previous Festivals.
Evensong
Welcome Reception
Dinner
Optional tour / activity
Organ recital
Rehearsal for Evensong
Second rehearsal for Evensong with Cathedral / church / chapel choir
Festival Evensong
Free time
Pre-dinner welcome drinks
Festival dinner
Speeches & toast
Music & dancing
Morning service
Farewell reception
Sunday lunch
A good way of involving the ‘town' is to invite the local civic head to Evensong, followed by a drinks reception where the Dean / FCOCA Chairman / Local Association Chairman can welcome delegates.
In recent years, it has become a Friday night treat to walk back into the Cathedral at twilight to sing Compline, the last office of the monastic day. The Federation can provide printed orders of service (contact the Secretary) and we can usually rustle up enough singers and a cantor to sing the service ourselves, but the inclusion of the Cathedral Lay Clerks is always very welcome.
It is customary for the Federation prayer to be included in the intersessions and for a member of the local association or the Federation to read one of the lessons. Traditionally this was done by the Chair of the Federation but the current Chair would rather open this opportunity to a wider group of people. The one major point that we believe should always be included is the opportunity for the local association & federation members to sing the full evensong with the choir and process in and out with them.
At the dinner (or lunch if preferred) the number of speeches and who does them is entirely up to you, but bear in mind the length of the programme, especially if it is held in the evening.
Grace is usually sung before the dinner as a clear marker to move from the welcome drinks to the dinner itself.
There are normally three toasts, the Loyal Toast followed by the National Anthem (sung and often two verses) before the speeches begin plus ‘The Federation of Cathedral Old Choristers’ Associations’ and ‘Our Guests’.
Musical entertainment is always well received!
Many delegates will attend at least one of the services in the Cathedral, most attending the main Eucharist service.
In the last few years, an optional Sunday lunch has been arranged. This has been well received, the cost being an extra charge on the weekend.
It is helpful for members of your Association, to be 'on duty' to welcome delegates and act as stewards, especially if activities are taking place in different venues. A map of the locality included in the invitation or handed out on the day, is also very useful. You may wish to provide delegates with a 'Welcome Pack' containing the programme, map, local tourist information and a list of attendees.