What Is The Croydon Music Festival?

Croydon Music Festival is an annual performing arts festival, which aims to promote arts in all its form that includes music, speech, dance and drama. The festival seeks to promote the standard and quality of performing arts and increase awareness. One of the main vision of this festival is to provide a platform for performers to get the opportunity to enjoy and experience performing at the same time gain the motivation, encouragement and education necessary to stand on their own feet and take their talent to the next level.

Croydon Music Festival is a one of a kind event and a two way learning process where the younger generation gets the opportunity to listen and learn from the performers while the performers gain constructive feedback and guidance from professionals.

Participants from all over the UK come and demonstrate their various talents using musical instruments like the piano, guitar, strings, brass, woodwind, harp and handbells. Other categories include choral, organ, percussion, vocal, composition, rock, pop and jazz in the music section. Under the drama section there is speech and drama whilst in the dance section there is south Asian dance and general dance categories respectively.

The festival having gained popularity over the years has led the organisers to consider managing the event on a larger scale. With attendance increasing every year, more Croydon hotels have emerged since then to accommodate visitors. Hotels near Croydon in areas like Wallington, Purley, Thornton Heath and New Addington have also gained from this event with the demand for more accommodation facilities during the peak season.

The rich musical history and culture of Croydon can be traced back to the 18th century with the likes of famous music composer Samuel Coleridge Taylor. Croydon has witnessed many musical successes over the years with the latest musical development being the dub step genre, which is a mixture of Jamaican music, garage, drum and bass.

Notable international music venues include the Fairfield Halls, the Cartoon and The Greyhound where Croydon has played hosts to world renowned artists such as Queen, Led Zeppelin, Jimi Hendrix, David Bowie, the Who, A-HA, the Damned, the Boomtown Rats, the Banshees and many more.

Today the region is home to the famous London School for Performing Arts & Technology, otherwise more commonly known as The BRIT School for Performing Arts & Technology. It has produced talents such as Adele, Amy Winehouse, Leona Lewis, Jessie J, Kate Nash, Katy B and many others.