As one of the leading festivals in the UK and celebrating its 43rd year in 2019 the prestigious St Magnus International Festival brings international orchestras, recitalists, theatre, dance and literature to the Orkney Islands for a week around midsummer and is renowned for its unique blend of world-class performance and community participation.
The Festival attracts audiences from across the UK and beyond to events. Interwoven with the Festival there are courses for young professional composers, conductors and writers with participants drawn from all over the world and open sessions for festival goers to watch.
Founded in 1977 by Orkney’s distinguished resident composer Sir Peter Maxwell Davies, the Festival has developed from small beginnings to become one of the UK’s most innovative and highly regarded arts events whilst retaining its roots in the local community.
The Festival’s vision is to enrich people’s lives through the arts. Its aims are to present and promote arts of the highest quality; to be creative and innovative in programming and presenting new work; to enable and support year-round activity in Orkney; to provide and add value to education in and through the arts; to attract, stimulate and retain audiences of all ages and backgrounds; to disseminate the Festival’s work outwith Orkney and to be sustainable, artistically, managerially and financially.
