With the return of the highly anticipated Gaiety Musical Theatre Festival, launching next April 2023 at Ragley Hall, Warwickshire, comes a unique and exciting opportunity for talented performers from the West midlands and beyond to get involved. Gaiety Festival will host a Community Bandstand with 16 performance slots up for grabs throughout the day for non-professional, in-training individuals and groups. Applications for the Community Bandstand slots have officially opened. Those selected for the Community Bandstand will have the once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to perform alongside household West End names and be an official part of the Gaiety Festival line-up. The local community is at the heart of Gaiety Festival and all applications can be made online via submission of an audition tape or link to a performance of a musical theatre-inspired number, across mediums including song, dance, spoken word and circus.
Following its postponement in 2022, this one-of-a-kind epic multi-stage festival will bring together some of the biggest West End and Broadway stars, such as Collabro, Lee Mead and Marisha Wallace, for a day packed with musical theatre performances and experiences. The festival launched in October with early bird tickets at just £25. This incredible offer, which must end on 31st December, allows musical theatre fans the chance to grab their spot at the festival straight away, at an amazing discount of over 40%.
Alongside the community bandstand there will be two professional stages, a silent disco, theatre village, backstage hub, a funfair and food and drink stalls. The headliners of Gaiety Musical Theatre Festival will be: Marisha Wallace (Oklahoma!; Waitress; Hairspray); Kerry Ellis (Anything Goes; We Will Rock You; Wicked); Collabro, in one of their last-ever performances; Lee Mead (Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat; Wicked; Legally Blonde: The Musical); Cassidy Janson (& Juliet; Beautiful: The Carol King Musical; Avenue Q); Lauren Samuels (Bend It Like Beckham; Grease; We Will Rock You) and Sophie Evans (Wicked; The Wizard of Oz; Lord of the Dance). The amazing line up will perform their favourite musical theatre songs on the Main Stage, accompanied by the London Musical Theatre Orchestra (Royal Albert Hall; London Palladium; Dominion Theatre).
Festivalgoers can sing along with their favourite musical stars on the Main Stage, dance the day away to their favourite Broadway belters in the silent disco tent, browse a wide variety of independent and official show merchandise in the theatre village, and get involved with an exciting programme of events and activities across the 20-acre site. There are more acts, events and activities to still be announced.
Mike Wilson, producer of Gaiety Festival comments, We are delighted to offer up-and-coming stars of tomorrow the opportunity to join the lineup at the UK’s first outdoor music festival dedicated solely to musical theatre. Our Community Bandstand will be the focal point of the theatre village, where festivalgoers can browse a plethora of exhibits and stalls and soak and up the electric atmosphere. We look forward to receiving applications from groups and individuals across many artistic disciplines and showcasing the incredible talents of our non-professional community.
The outdoor Gaiety Festival will bring the best of musical theatre to the stunning grounds of Ragley Hall Warwickshire, a magnificent stately home near Shakespeare’s birthplace, Stratford-upon-Avon. Alongside standard, family, and VIP tickets, there will be return travel packages from Birmingham, London, Stratford-upon-Avon, Warwick, Worcestershire and Coventry from Gaiety Festival’s Official Coach Partner, Big Green Coach, so musical fans from around the country can easily get to Ragley Hall.
