Mrs Sunderland Festival 2026 reaches for the stars with a glorious celebration of the performing arts

By Ann Talboys, Mrs Sunderland Festival

What an amazing 12 days of performance at the Mrs Sunderland Festival. Over 5,000 performances over a total of 46 sessions utilising three venues in the magnificent Huddersfield Town Hall.

The festival began on the first day of February with the adult singing workshop. Over 100 singers were led by Thom Meredith and joined by Musica Kirklees Youth Orchestra and fantastic soloists to learn and then perform music from stage and screen.

The festival continued on February 11 with three contrasting workshops. The special needs workshop saw three local special schools work with The Dark Horse Theatre company and then perform their own prepared pieces to everyone. We finished with dancing to the festival’s theme song – Reach for the Stars.

At the same time as the special needs workshop in the concert hall the mini music makers workshops were held in the Old Court Room. Toddler and baby sing and sign sessions were fun filled times for very young performers.

A quick change of furniture and ambience and the Concert Hall was transformed into an afternoon Tea Dance for dementia sufferers and their carers.

Singing, dancing, music from a junior choir and a violinist and lots of tea and cake made for a wonderful experience for over 80 participants.

On February 12 over 800 key stage two children filled the concert hall for the Tiny Strings, Big Voices event.

Well prepared songs and ukelele playing was led by Peter Simons, Ginette Eady and Sue Bennett from Musica Kirklees. About half the children returned to provide a concert for parents and guests in the evening too.

Friday February 13 saw the first of the 140 classes which take place over the festival. Junior and youth choirs from Kirklees, Halifax, Sheffield, Saddleworth, Hull and Kendal sang in eight different classes.

The weekend of February 14 and 15 saw all the vocal classes; over 35 of them from key stage one children to experienced amateur operatic singers singing everything from Walt Disney through musical theatre and pop ballads to German Leider, Stephen Sondheim and opera arias.

It was an amazing two days of performance demonstrating the range of exceptional talent we have in the area and beyond.

On Sunday February 15 we held the annual Young Musician of the Year competition with £1,800-worth of prizes at stake for those musicians who are just embarking on a musical career.

As this is such a popular event, we have split instrumental and vocals this year with only instrumentalists performing this year. Vocalists will get their chance next year. The winner was Toby Johnson Jones who plays the French horn.

Monday and Tuesday was the turn of the pianists and public speakers/actors to take to the stages in the classes.

A change in the conditions of entry this year have seen no age limit to the graded classes and this has resulted in larger number of performers and positive feedback from teachers.

From a pre-grade one performance to a Chopin Etude the performances were well prepared and confident.

Over 25 spoken word classes witnessed verse speaking, acting, business pitches and storytelling.

From a seven-year-old telling a humorous poem to a retired gentleman performing from Shakespeare the standard was very high and always entertaining.

Monday evening provided a small group of budding professional actors with advice and coaching for auditions in the spoken word masterclass.

The hall was transformed once more on Tuesday evening for the Festival Dance Showcase: an evening of wonderful dancing from local groups. This year tap, street, cheerleading and carnival were just some of the marvellous dances on display.

A new venture of the festival was an Orchestra Tutti session with almost 150 musicians of all ages coming together in Huddersfield Town Hall for the first ever Kirklees Orchestral Tutti.

This involved organisations including Musica Youth Orchestra Huddersfield, Huddersfield and Slaithwaite Philharmonic Orchestras, Paddock and Holmfirth Orchestras, the University of Huddersfield and Musica Kirklees.

Scores of musicians made memories as the first ever Kirklees Orchestral Tutti came together at Huddersfield Town Hall

All the musicians – and the festival organisers – were delighted with the evening and it will certainly feature in future festivals.

On Thursday February 19, eighteen instrumental classes of strings, woodwind, brass, percussion and ensembles took place.

This is the largest number of individual instrumentalists we have seen at the festival for some years and they delighted audiences with their variety and standard of play.

Percussion classes were re-introduced this year and we hope they will become a regular feature of the festival.

Friday afternoon and – complete with glitter ball – the concert hall was transformed into the Discofest at Mrs S. U3 – a wonderful local live band and a DJ took the dancers (adults only) back to the 60s, 70s and 80s.

This is the second Discofest of the festival and its popularity is growing with over 200 people dancing the afternoon away.

On Friday evening the festival organised another new event. This was a musical theatre audition masterclass for those young people who are hoping to make a career of musical theatre.

Saturday February 21 was adult choir day and we saw 32 separate performances over 10 different classes.

Community choirs, local choirs, male voice, female voice, mixed voice, small choirs and barbershop groups from all over the country joined us. Five of these choirs were invited to join us for the evening concert.

The Last Night of the Festival Concert took place on the evening of the last day with performances from some of the very best performers from the whole festival. A glorious celebration of Performing Arts.

The 2026 festival has been a great success. The festival committee congratulate and thank every performer for their preparation and hard work and for their strength and confidence to perform to the audiences.

We would also like to thank our sponsors, friends and supporters without whom the festival could not run.

Thank you too to the town hall staff who have been unfailingly helpful during the festival and to the small army of ‘yellow’ helpers who seamlessly make the festival run smoothly.

Main image by: Andy Symons. All photos courtesy of Huddersfield Photo Imaging Club