Our History

Buxton International Festival’s story begins with the town’s beautiful opera house, which opened to great fanfare in 1903. Designed by the doyen of opera house architects, Frank Matcham, it remains to this day a real gem of Edwardian architecture.

After it’s early days as a touring house, with the advent of talking films, it became used mainly as a cinema with occasional live shows, most notably when in 1937 the legendary director Lilian Babylis brought an Old Vic Theatre Company for the first of a series of drama festivals, which continued into the second World War.  The potential of Buxton and the Opera House as festival venues was established, but thereafter the dream lay dormant.

By 1976 the backstage had deteriorated too far for any live performance.  A group of local enthusiasts asked the borough council to spend money on its building to restore the position.  In fact, the council was faced with the likely loss of the cinema company and knew it had to act.

At this stage Malcolm Fraser, then lecturer at the Royal Northern College of Music, visited Buxton on a day trip.  Entranced by the beauty of the town he mustered friends from the world of music, and the idea of a festival to revive the Opera House was born.

The Festival’s opening year in 1979 was an artistic triumph, though not without drama.  The soprano for the role of Lucia in Donizetti’s Lucia di Lammermoor lost her voice on the morning of the opening performance. A replacement was flown in from Germany, arriving two hours before curtain-up!

The grand gala opening was attended by Princes Alice, Duchess of Gloucester.  The Minister for the Arts, Norman St John Stevens was in attendance and posed, trumpet in hand, with a local band.

Organisers realised that the Festival needed to offer something different to encourage people to Buxton. Rarely performed or unusual opera became BIF’s signature. These seldom staged works continue to attract not only audiences from across the world but also a stellar array of musicians and artists thrilled to be able to perform in them. Lesley Garrett’s career was launched when she sang in Cimarosa’s Secret Marriage, while outside the theatre George Thomas, the then speaker of the House of Commons, was spotted twirling with the Morris dancers on Opening night.  Buxton does that to people.

The Festival continued to grow with the inclusion of a major concert series.  Then in 2001 came the idea of adding a literary element, the brainchild of the then Chairman Roy Hattersley.  Margaret Drabble, Beryl Bainbridge, Sir Jeremy Isaacs, Michael Palin, PD James are among the many literary and celebrity giants who have flocked to what one critic has described as the ‘envy of Edinburgh let alone Cheltenham.’

In 2019 Buxton International Festival celebrated its 40th anniversary by reviving the genre of opera pasticcio with a specially written work Georgiana.  The critically acclaimed and award winning opera depicted the story of the exuberant 5th Duchess of Devonshire – whose family, at the nearby Chatsworth estate, remain inextricably entwinned with Buxton.

Whilst jazz and world music had often been performed at Buxton International Festival, it wasn’t until 2022 that a curated Jazz line-up was added to the Festival, attracting the likes of Wynton Marsalis, Claire Teal, Madeline Bell and Adrian Cox.

Today Buxton International Festival has evolved to become more than just a summer celebration.  Work takes place all year round to provide opportunities for young musicians, platforms for rising stars in the North of England, BIF delivers Art Council Awards in local primary schools, and runs the local Kaleidoscope Community choir