34th Bury St Edmunds Festival enjoys wonderful performances, good ticket sales and happy audiences

Ticket sales and audience feedback have combined to ensure this year’s Bury St Edmunds Festival was one of the most popular in the event’s 34-year history.

Several concerts and events during the 11-day festival sold out, while box office sales well exceeded targets for most performances.

Nick Wells, festival manager, said: “It has been an amazing 11 days with large, happy audiences and wonderful performances from people at the very beginning of their careers through to seasoned professionals.

“Every event I have seen has had exquisite moments, but perhaps the most special of all was the entire audience joining in unprompted as Nigel Kennedy played Danny Boy as one of his encores.”

He said thoughts were already turning to next year’s festival, from May 15-24.

Sell-out events at this year’s festival, which finished on Sunday, included Rick Wakeman and Nigel Kennedy as well as the town walks.

Other events attracting large audiences included the Ukulele Orchestra of Great Britain, folk singer Kate Rusby, Clare Teal and her Big Mini Big Band and John Cooper Clarke.