A History of Ballymena Festival of Music, Speech and Dance

Ballymena’s first musical festival took place in May 1916. It lasted for 2 days, offered classes in either piano or singing and it cost £60 to stage. Nowadays the Festival covers 6 disciplines, lasts for almost 6 weeks and has thousands of entries from Ballymena and beyond. There have been many ups and downs but the focus of the volunteers who run the festival has always been on enabling people to display their talents before an audience and receive the judgement and advice of knowledgeable adjudicators. The story of Ballymena Festival began in June 1915, when a group of local people met to form ’Ballymena Musical Festival Association.’ The visionary behind the meeting was Mrs Mary Dinsmore, who was keen for Ballymena to join the growing musical Festival movement. She was determined to see an improvement in the musical education afforded to young people and felt that the war should not interfere with that objective.

1916 - 1939

The initial Festivals took place in Ballymena Town Hall and by all accounts they were incredibly popular, often with standing room only. When the Town Hall burnt down in 1919, the Festival was obliged to move to the Protestant Hall on the Galgorm Road. Numbers of entries continued to rise rapidly, especially in the Vocal section where soloists and choirs alike received enthusiastic support from large audiences. Mill and Factory workers as well as schools and youth organisations formed choirs and competition was fierce. In 1924, a new section ‘Elocution’ was added. This later became known as ‘Verse Speaking and Dramatic Art’ and was the forerunner of today’s Speech and Drama section. In 1929, another new section offered competition in ‘Folk-dancing’. This included Scottish country as well as Traditional Irish dancing and it eventually evolved into the Traditional Irish dance section we know today. More new classes were offered in 1932 when ‘Country Fiddling’ competitions began. This evolved into Traditional Music over the years. 1929 saw the return of Ballymena Festival to the Town Hall. The new building, on the site of the old one, offered much better facilities and breathing space for the still large audiences. Throughout the 1930s the Festival saw continual growth in all the sections, but most especially in Folk Dancing. However, the outbreak of war in September 1939 ensured that there would be no Festival activity for the duration of hostilities.

 1946 - 1979

The Festival began again in 1946, but there had been major changes in the committee and it took some time for confidence to be built again. It became clear that it was no longer possible for one general secretary to cope with all the sections and so, in 1949, section secretaries were appointed to improve efficiency. The town was ready to be entertained once more and there was still much enthusiasm for the folk dancing and choir competitions. However, the 1950s saw a gradual decline in audiences, especially for choir nights. It was at this stage that the Festival began to be staged in February, and that caused some problems with severe weather. Entry levels remained high, except in instrumental music, which still only offered competition in piano and violin. By 1959 the Festival was sufficiently worried to establish a publicity committee to try and drum up more audience members. It was tempting to blame television for the decline in interest since Ballymena was not the only festival to be suffering in this way. The Festival organisers were determined to keep going and to attract new entries, classes were introduced for recorders, flutes and string orchestras. In 1965 more classes were added for Brass instruments and the County Antrim education authority’s encouragement of musical instruments being made available in primary schools began to have an effect. It was discouraging for the Festival organisers to realise that finance was beginning to be a problem since fewer tickets sold meant less money to pay increasing costs. As the years went by, financial headaches were joined by anxiety over political turmoil. There was rapid inflation in the 1970s and by 1978, businesses in the town were approached to help keep the Festival alive.

1980 - 2000

The town of Ballymena saw some huge changes in the 1980s with new shopping centres being built. The Festival also tried something new in offering, at that time, a huge £500 prize to attract the best amateur singers to the town. They were also offered food and lodging for their stay, provided by local hosts and hostesses. It had the desired effect in putting Ballymena Festival on the map, and soon other businesses were sponsoring prizes and bursaries. This greatly relieved the financial discomfort and gave the organisers confidence to keep innovating in order to survive. In 1991 the Ballymena Musical Festival Association, formed in 1915, rebranded itself and became Ballymena Festival of Music, Speech and Dance. A new logo was designed and remains with the Festival to this day.

2001 - present

Ballymena Borough Council became the main sponsor of Ballymena Festival in 2001, helping to maintain financial stability. The long-planned renovation of Ballymena Town Hall meant that the Festival had to seek alternative accommodation for a number of years. A number of local hotels played host over the years, and choirs were accommodated in Ballymena North Community Centre. It was a great relief to return to the Town Hall in 2009 and to be able to use the excellent facilities now on offer. The only fly in the ointment was that the seating capacity of the auditorium had been reduced from 600 to 400. This was for health and safety reasons, but it has meant that it is especially difficult to accommodate audiences on school choir days, for example. The Festival is nevertheless grateful that The Braid is our home. It was the excellence of the facilities that attracted a proposal in 2013 from local dance mums for Modern Dance to be added to the Festival. The newest section of the Festival joined in 2014, and the organisers have worked hard to make it a huge success, attracting large entries and equally large audiences. As 2016, and the centenary of the Festival approached, the organisers were keen to do everything possible to mark the occasion. A grand concert was staged on 13th February 2016, featuring performances from current and previous performers. It was a wonderful occasion, preceded by a mayoral reception for special guests. Other ways of marking the centenary included

● Special gold, silver and bronze prize badges for 2016 only

● Centenary certificates for every entrant in all disciplines

● An art competition for schools, sponsored by Enkalon Foundation

● Centenary badges for all volunteers

● A museum exhibition of the history of Ballymena Festival

● Publication of a book ‘A history of Ballymena Festival’ 1916 – 2016

The Festival had made a successful application to the Heritage Lottery Fund for money to fund the certificates, exhibition and book publication and their input was invaluable. To make 2016 an even more special year, the Festival was nominated to receive the Queen’s Award for Voluntary Service, the equivalent of an MBE for organisations. This recognised the vital role played by volunteers in staging the Festival every year since committee members alone could not run the festival. The award was made by the Lord Lieutenant of County Antrim, Mrs Joan Christie, at a ceremony in the Braid in August 2016.

Festival continued every February and March until 2020 when it became apparent that life was about to become more complicated. The Festival finished with Modern Dance just before the national lockdown to contain covid 19 was announced. In September 2020 the Committee met via Zoom and concluded that it would be too risky to try to stage a festival in 2021. Announcements were made, e-mails were sent out and the waiting began to see when life would be back to normal. By September 2021 the feeling was that the Festival should be arranged for 2022, but arrangements were made with a sense of caution, lest cancellation would be necessary. Entries were very good, and there was a great sense of hope that all would proceed. It was not possible to have the usual choirs and orchestras, but Festival 2022 saw music, speech and dance return to The Braid with a great sense of joy and gratitude.