It all started in 1964 when Dr John Coope decided to do something about the social breakdown that he was witnessing all around him. He decided that the town should hold a festival - music, singing, dancing, drawing & painting - in fact any form of artistic achievement that brought people together for collective enjoyment, and ultimately for the enjoyment of a wider audience. The 1964 Festival was a roaring success and we have been holding them every few years ever since.

WELCOME to the Happy Valley 'Arts' pages. In this set I hope to cover all art forms that are active and, indeed, thriving in Bollington. There are so many arts based groups in Bollington - it is commonly noted that the town is exceptional in the breadth and quality of artistic achievement; quite unlike any other place of similar size (see box, right).

Most, but not all, of the performing arts are based at the Bollington Arts Centre (BAC) in Wellington Road. The BAC has its own web site which provides information on their forthcoming programme. This includes external amateur and professional performers as well as Bollington groups.

The lists below attempt to identify every arts based group and individual artist in Bollington. If you know of others please let me know. Each of the groups has one or more pages in this set as well as a short entry in the Organisations pages (which are mainly for contact purposes). Individual artists and performers also have a page in this set if I have sufficient information. Those performing professionally may also have an entry in the Business pages.

Performing arts groups

Bollington Festival Opera

Bollington Light Opera Group (BLOG)

Bollington Festival Players

Bollington Junior Festival Players

Bollington Festival Choir

Bollington Brass Band

Bollington Corps of Drums

Bollington Festival Music Theatre

Art Groups (drawing, painting, etc)

Bollington Art Group

Artist's home page

Photograpy

Bollington Festival Photography