THE Edington Music Festival will be celebrating its 60th anniversary this year and has come a long way since it was first set up.

Created by Reverend Ralph Dudley and David Calcutt, the first festival in 1956 was in response to church choirs being cut to save on money and in a bid to keep the tradition of choral singing alive.

Anne Curtis, from the Edington Music Festival Association and who first visited the festival in 2009, said: “When Ralph Dudley moved down here in probably 1955 and took one look inside the church he decided this is where it needs to happen.

“He got in touch with David Calcutt, a friend from Cambridge, who gathered together a choir and they performed over a weekend in August.

“It became a mission of Ralph and David to really focus on the English choral tradition and to keep it alive and the festival has grown enormously.”

Since then the festival has become world renowned featuring on BBC Radio 3 and attracting hundreds of people every year.

Choirs and musicians come from across the country to perform at the fourteenth-century priory church, even paying for the privilege.

Performing up to four times a day, those visiting often return every year and are lodged by residents of Edington and the surrounding villages, forming long-lasting friendships.

Notable people to have visited the festival over the years include conductor Sir John Elliot Gardner and organist Simon Preston, who attended the festival as early as 1957.

And although both the original founders Rev Dudley and Mr Calcutt – who went on to become a barrister and formed the Press Complaints Commission – have died, some of their family members still attend the festival.

Mrs Curtis added: “Church music is a whole world of its own, it doesn’t have much of a life out of the church.

“The first time you come in here though and hear the chanting coming from the choir, it’s hair raising but so beautiful.

“It’s absolutely up there as one of the best festivals.”

This year’s festival will take place from August 23-30.