Page 282 - Media Coverage Book - 75th Aldeburgh Festival 2024

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events on the edge of the East Suffolk coast. In its 75 iteration
Aldeburgh still delivers exciting new discoveries of unfamiliar works

and composers, but this year perhaps more than others were
bittersweet moments of personal growth.

When Forster bemoaned the overcharging in some British festivals
culture of the time he wasn’t simply documenting the ongoing
impact of post-war privations, but highlighting how Aldeburgh was
different, even in 1945. Three years after the premiere of Peter

Grimes at Sadlers Wells – the work that establish Britten’s
international reputation – barbed wire sea defences remained on
Aldeburgh beach, milk was still delivered in carts, farmland had

gone to seed and food and petrol was still rationed. Whilst the
threat of invasion was long gone, the new peril was flooding and the
poor state of the town’s sea defences. Aldeburgh wasn’t a go-to
destination like it is today.

BIRTH OF THE ALDEBURGH FESTIVAL