Our 2026 Festival
Our forthcoming festival will be held in February 2026.
Choirs, Orchestras & Bands will be held on 9/10 February 2026 at St Mary’s Church in South Woodford, and all music, speech and drama classes will take place 16 - 21 February 2026 at the Redbridge Music Service, Hainault.
Registration for the 2026 festival is now open.
A Note From Our Chair
Welcome to the Stratford & East London Music Festival website - we are proud to be a festival for all.
We invite you to enter our 2026 festival and become part of the oldest competitive music and drama festival in the UK. The festival will take place in February 2026 and entries need to be received by 31 December 2025. We welcome performers of any age and ability.
Our festival offers an excellent opportunity to perform live, and showcase and hone your talent in a friendly and encouraging environment. All entrants receive a written and verbal assessment from a
professional adjudicator, plus a certificate; and most winners will receive a cup. We also have a
number of cash prizes to reward the best entrants, ranging from £25 to £500.
Please have a look at the 2026 syllabus - you will see we offer a very wide range of classes covering
choirs, orchestras and bands; concerto; solo and ensemble singing; piano; instrumental; millennium and confinemento classes; speech and drama; and composition.
If you have any questions about the festival, please get in touch.
Matthew Taylor, Festival Chair
![For anyone who is not sure what the Stratford & East London Music Festival is, I can tell you it's the oldest competitive music and drama festival in the country. The first festival was held in 1882.
You won't be surprised to hear it started in Stratford, East London, and it has extended its catchment area for entrants far and wide.
The festival is run by volunteers but employs professional adjudicators who assess and comment on every performance, and judge who is the winner of each class.
From choirs, solo and ensemble singing, and speech and drama to piano, percussion, strings, woodwind and brass, concerto and composing, we have classes that allow you to showcase your talents and compare them to others.
Our festival is open to all ages and abilities. Our aim to to support live and public performance for everyone.
The 2023 festival will take place on 6 and 7 February 2023 at St Mary’s Church in South Woodford for choirs, orchestras and bands; all music, speech and drama classes will take place 13 - 18 February at our new venue, Redbridge Music Service, in Hainault.
[As you can imagine, Redbridge Music Service has excellent facilities with the added benefit of a car park, easy access to the London Underground (Fairlop on the Central Line) plus it's also outside the ULEZ area].
We offer certificates for all entrants, cups for almost all class winners, cash prizes for the best of the best and ABRSM has sponsored book tokens for our graded piano classes. The best pianist can win the prestigious Felix Marr Award with a prize of £500.
Our festival finale is on Saturday 18 February, when the best young musicians and singers from the week's festival compete to be our Young Musician of the Year. First prize includes an award of £100. The event is introduced by the best speakers and actors, and will be attended by the Mayor of Redbridge.
This year, our syllabus is entirely online and we have a new online entry process. If you need help with either of these, please get in touch.
Deadline for entries to the 2023 festival is 30 December 2022.
Matthew Taylor
Chairperson
Stratford & East London Music Festival](https://scontent-sea1-1.cdninstagram.com/v/t51.29350-15/319875732_1491716488002147_7406749129048954327_n.jpg?stp=dst-jpg_e35_tt6&_nc_cat=108&ccb=1-7&_nc_sid=18de74&efg=eyJlZmdfdGFnIjoiRkVFRC5iZXN0X2ltYWdlX3VybGdlbi5DMyJ9&_nc_ohc=iODfyH4I9KYQ7kNvwGYnkml&_nc_oc=AdlSO0PMQdVRYjTq2JTJzyz1kC2y_8zPFtr1KmWnp0SHWN_jiObhueU0MrZJ2nlafjY&_nc_zt=23&_nc_ht=scontent-sea1-1.cdninstagram.com&edm=ANo9K5cEAAAA&_nc_gid=KzsbTwfVL1qFJR7uxloWGA&oh=00_AfdyggiZ6x_LfdYHtKqAbxhm872OSXtjeD15-ik3ryQHVQ&oe=68F762F5)
![A big thank you to @abrsmmusic for supporting our 2023 festival, which takes place in February.
As always, our festival offers the ideal opportunity for performers of any age and ability to perform and compete in one of the many music, speech and drama classes. Online entry is now open. Link in bio.
[We have ad-space on our website and in our programme. They'll be seen by hundreds of people, many local, typically parents of school-age children, musicians, performers, actors, and other audience members. Please get in touch if you are interested in finding out more.]](https://scontent-sea1-1.cdninstagram.com/v/t51.29350-15/318007883_185070394103076_5183820103946427065_n.jpg?stp=dst-jpg_e35_tt6&_nc_cat=100&ccb=1-7&_nc_sid=18de74&efg=eyJlZmdfdGFnIjoiRkVFRC5iZXN0X2ltYWdlX3VybGdlbi5DMyJ9&_nc_ohc=SORgkgh_g4wQ7kNvwEHgIZL&_nc_oc=AdlO7mlBtaQP20439-7yNWS2rW_03XgXX5THDuxCLFa3Gy1Z0UzYMt35cm_xWYV50xA&_nc_zt=23&_nc_ht=scontent-sea1-1.cdninstagram.com&edm=ANo9K5cEAAAA&_nc_gid=KzsbTwfVL1qFJR7uxloWGA&oh=00_AfcyY0VQONVdCU389FCfIr5MUx9_b5IAS-jbTVeBzRPkug&oe=68F769DE)
