Much Wenlock arts festival closes ahead of Olympian Games
An annual live arts festival has taken place in a Shropshire town ahead of a summer athletics events that is said to have inspired the modern Olympics.
The Wenlock Olympian Society Live Arts Festival 2023 finished last week following four weekends of art and drama at William Brookes School and Holy Trinity Church in Much Wenlock.
The festival staged events in dance, music, speech and drama mainly drawing on local clubs and schools, but with some entrants from further afield.
Shropshire’s Vice Lieutenant, Jenny Wynn, and High Sheriff, Selina Graham, attended some of the performances.
Sue Hayward, the Arts Festival chair, said: "After being unable to hold the first day of classes on March 11 due to the snow,we were determined to provide another opportunity for the young contestants involved to be able to perform. We were very pleased to be able to manage this within a short time-frame, knowing how hard the young people involved had worked to get their entries to performance standard.
" The feedback from this year's Festival has been very positive with great comments about the friendly and supportive environment that the Festival provides for both those competing and those spectating.
" The aim of the Live Arts Festival is to provide an opportunity for young people to perform in front of an audience,sometimes for the first time. They will be both excited and understandably nervous but it gives them the chance to build their confidence in a supportive format.
"The standard of this year's Live Arts was wonderful. Watching the Senior Cabaret Groups dancing was like watching a West End Show."
The festival took place ahead of the Wenlock Olympian Games that are set to take place in July.
The annual games, and their founder, Dr William Penny Brookes, are thought to have inspired the modern Olympic Games that began in 1896 after Baron Pierre de Coubertin, the founder of the International Olympic Committee, visited Much Wenlock in 1890.
The annual series of sporting events are set to begin this year on July 2 at William Brookes School in Much Wenlock as well as other local venues.
The range of events continues to evolve and this year organisers say they delighted to include equestrian events provided by the Cavalier Centre.
The games will also celebrate the life of Harold Langley who took part in the pentathlon event of the 1923 Wenlock Olympian Games, which was watched by 3,000 spectators.
He later went on to represent Great Britain in the Paris Olympics of 1924 alongside Harold Abrahams and Eric Liddle, who were immortalised in the film Chariots of Fire.
In honour of the event, a new medal is to be struck and the society’s president, Jonathan Edwards CBE – the current triple jump world record holder – will present the new medal to competitors at this year’s pentathlon.
