READER LETTERS: High praise for inaugural Diss Organ Festival
Congratulations to Diss for the wonderful organ festival on Sunday, May 14.
It was good to see so many members of the public enjoying the sounds of a huge collection and range of large and small organs. It must be very rare to have so many in one place.
It was good, too, to see the town hall play its part in the festival.
Everywhere we went, my wife and I were met by enthusiastic owners and interested visitors.
By lunchtime, there were large groups of people appreciating the quality of these rare instruments.
Well done for getting such a diverse group from such a wide area.
D Cossey
Church Lane
Sprowston
As a Diss resident of Diss, and through the pages of your paper, I would like to thank all the organisers and participants in the Diss Organ Festival for such an entertaining day.
It was wonderful to see such amazing pieces of machinery which brought the town to life in a most joyful way.
Great to see how it linked all parts of the town together and provided opportunities for all the traders to open on a special day.
May this be the beginning of a regular event.
Ray Bryant
Denmark Street
Diss
As the former organiser of the international organ festival in Geraardsbergen, Belgium I was invited to the first Diss organ festival.
After ten years we stopped our festival at our 10th anniversary. Many of our English players were sad to hear that and started to think about the organisation of a new festival in England.
We were pleased and honoured when they asked us for help and advice.
We visited their first festival and we could not be more impressed on the work they did.
Almost 40 organs in such a nice town with so many things to see and do. It made us blush more than once.
Streets were full of people enjoying themselves. We guess between six and 8000 visitors from all over the country and we saw many friends from Belgium, Holland and France. This is wonderful.
Businesses having lots of customers and the food or drinkplaces were full. Together with an open and creative town-council, the organisers placed Diss on the musical and cultural map, way beyond the country borders.
We found the local people so inviting and nice. What a way to impress visitors.
So congratulations for the organisers, Alan Smith and his team. Congratulations to the town council and all the Diss people. All together you were the max.
We found a great successor ==for our Belgian festival and you all did even better than us. We will always be there to help them to grow even more.
I end with a quote from a lady organ grinder; “ Thank you for ending your Belgian festival so we can have our own now in Diss.”
And having seen the crowd you all made so happy...is agreed with that lovely lady.
Diss, go for it now every year.
Luc Bal
Former organiser of the
International Hooghuys
organfestival
-Send your letters to Diss Express, Norfolk and Suffolk House, Mere Street, Diss, Norfolk, IP22 4AE, or email them to editorial@dissexpress.co.uk
