What is the Festival?

The North London Festival of Music, Speech and Drama runs once a year and gives participants opportunities to present their artistry to an audience and receive feedback from experienced professionals. It is dedicated to encouraging musicians and actors by celebrating performance and helping to nurture their creativity, develop excellent communication skills and build poise and confidence.
The Festival caters for children and adults at all ability levels and is open to any amateur or student who is living or studying in the United Kingdom or Republic of Ireland. Festival classes are not examinations, but every entrant receives constructive oral and written feedback from an adjudicator who is a professional in the relevant field.
The current Festival includes more than 200 classes in over 15 categories. Music classes currently run between mid-March and mid-May with a break for Easter. From this year, speech and drama classes are taking place in October or November.
As well as competitions for those of school age, the Festival hosts a series of highly respected Premier competitions for conservatoire-level students – these are essential stepping-stones to competing in international competitions. Each year there is an end of Festival concert featuring some of the outstanding entrants to the Festival, and in some categories there are other opportunities for further performance.

The Festival is affiliated to the Incorporated Society of Musicians (ISM).

Festival Audience

Audience members are welcome at all classes to support and encourage competitors. There is no charge for admission, but we do welcome donations towards the considerable costs of running the Festival.

Where does the Festival take place?

See the list of venues, or read the relevant section via the top menu.

More Information

For more information, browse through this website or see Ways to Help; or sign up to the mailing list by emailing enquiriesnlf@outlook.com.
The Festival’s survival depends on the continued commitment of our generous donors, members, sponsors, friends and volunteers. We’d be delighted to hear from you if you would like to get involved.

Memories of the Festival

Rosemary Cook has started writing a history of the Festival.  She would be delighted to hear from anyone who has memories of the Festival and especially musicians who took part in the Festival as children. Please email enquiriesnlf@outlook.com

For a brief history see the History of the Festival.