Entries now open for 2025 Festival of Chichester

Festival chairman Phil Hewitt said: “It's always an exciting time when we open for registration. We've got a really great Festival committee working hard to make the 2025 Festival the best ever, a really inclusive celebration of all the wonderful talent that we have in Chichester and beyond.”

Festival co-ordinator Mark Elliott said: “The Festival of Chichester is an umbrella for around 100 events and activities that take place every summer. For 2025 that will be from June 14 to July 20 but the window for submitting events is now open. So both organisers – and potential advertisers – should start thinking about arrangements.

“The range of possibilities need only be limited by your own imagination. The Festival welcomes concerts of virtually any genre, talks, walking tours, workshops, art shows, theatrical productions etc etc. So if you’re a local performer, artist, a leader of a musical group, an author wanting to talk about your new book or maybe a professional with a niche idea for a workshop highlighting your skills, it’s worth getting in touch – after reading the full details on the Take Part section of Festival of Chichester website https://festivalofchichester.co.uk/about/take-part/.

“You’ll organise your own event but being under the festival umbrella costs only £24 per event which gets you into the professionally-printed Festival brochure (15,000 copies distributed), the Festival diary and our website listing. For those that are new to the city, please be aware that the Festival of Chichester is completely different from the Chichester Festival Theatre, though the CFT is one of our regular supporters.”

Simon O'Hea, committee member responsible for online communications, has masterminded the Festival’s new website: https://festivalofchichester.co.uk.

“The Festival of Chichester website provides details of events, venues and news and provides an essential information hub for Festival-goers as well as giving advertisers the opportunity to promote themselves to a wide audience. It incorporates a portal for event organisers to add their events.

“In the autumn of 2024 the Festival engaged Chichester-based digital marketing agency 247 Creative to overhaul its old website.”

Andrew Leeds-Burton, design partner at 247 Creative, said: “We were delighted to have this opportunity to work with the Festival team and in doing so, have provided an enhanced user experience through well thought-out design bringing improved functionality, performance and ease of use.”

Simon added: “247 Creative have been a steadfast partner through this ongoing process of improvement. The event application process has been completely overhauled, allowing a better flow of information from the organiser to website and brochure. The new website also incorporates a new section, an event promotion guide which is aimed at helping event organisers to market their events.”