MUSIC FESTIVAL IN BRIGG NEARS ITS CENTURY

 

The 97th North Lincolnshire Music and Drama Festival will be held in Brigg late this month and during early April.
Music classes will be in St John's Church from March 27 to 29; drama will be from April 3 to 5 at the church, except for the Monday evening classes at the Vale Academy.
The festival concert and presentation of awards will take place at the Vale on Saturday, April 8, from 6pm.
So 2020 is to see the 100th festival, which is going to be well worth celebrating - a notable milestone in the cultural history of the town.
Many folk still living in Brigg who were pupils in the 1960s at Glebe Road School, the Prep and the Convent/St Mary's, will recall how daunting it was to walk down the aisle at the imposing Corn Exchange, climb the wooden steps at the side of the stage, position yourself and await the adjudicator's signal to start saying your poem.
How proud we were to gain a certificate and have our pictures appear in that week's Lincolnshire Times and displayed in the front window of paper's office at 57 Wrawby Street!
Pupils came from a wide area of North Lincolnshire to take part - the small Nettleton school, up in the Wolds on the far side of Caistor, always being well represented.
The fee-paying Preparatory School, on Bigby Street,  always did very well at the festival but the teachers at Lindsey County Council's Glebe Road seat of learning, where there were very sizeable class numbers, worked very hard to coach their pupils.
For some of us, life's first certificate for achivement was gained at these festivals, while others broke their duck with the coveted cycling proficiency award.
Hands up those who remember having to negotiate the row of tins set out in the Glebe Road playground, as Brigg Police kept a very close eye on how you handled your bike!

PICTURED ABOVE: A side view of Brigg Corn Exchange - the 19th century landmark - circa 1990, just a few years before it was demolished.