Welcome from the Artistic Director

Welcome to Various Voices 2009, which promises to be one of the biggest and most spectacular choral festivals in the history of LGBT choirs worldwide. Our research indicates massive interest from choirs and individual singers from both Europe and North America, and we are hopeful that thousands of singers from anything up to 65 choirs will converge on one of the most famous arts centre's in Europe for what promises to be an uplifting, enjoyable and unique 4-day festival of song. This year, our focus is very much towards interaction and looking outward to the world, so we are delighted to be welcoming 'non-gay' singers and groups to Various Voices too. We hope all the singers and ensembles joining us will find Various Voices an enjoyable and energising place, where they can find new friends and learn more about themselves and others.

All four of the days of the Festival will be crammed with activity, and there will be many, many opportunities for choirs, singers and audiences to take part and to become volunteer helpers too. To get the most out of the Festival, we strongly advise ensembles to be there from the opening ceremony at 10am on Friday May 1st right through until late evening on the Monday 4th May ( a holiday here in the UK). It would also help us to plan if you could register early.

Remember too that, to keep the basic cost to you down, your initial delegate or choir registration fee includes some but not all of the activities outlined below. You will need to pay for some workshops and performances in addition to the main cost, and we will ask you nearer the time to sign up for these several months ahead of time, so that we know we can afford to run them. Please note that at this stage, with just under a year to go, the overall plan inevitably lacks detail in some areas and is still subject to change.

Another feature of this festival that is different form previous years is that some, but not all, of the main performances and concert blocks will be open to the public. This helps us to support the festival financially through full priced ticket sales and also makes us visible to the outside world. It makes our celebration of song more meaningful because we sing not just to ourselves but literally to the world.

We are very confident we have a great Festival for you. All are welcome and all are part of our diverse and growing community. We strongly encourage you to attend, whether you are an experienced choir who has been many times before or a new up-and-coming group. We also need to ensure that the Festival meets your needs as choirs and singers. Please send constructive suggestions concerning artistic content to Charlie Beale: ArtisticDirector@VariousVoicesLondon.org.uk and we will do our very best to respond to your requests.

Yours in song,

Charlie Beale