Buxton Opera House is preparing to stage the annual Gilbert and Sullivan Festival for the last time after organisers announced it is to move to Harrogate next year.
In a letter Festival chairman Ian Smith said, “We have been concerned at rising costs of the Opera House—and quite frankly we can no longer afford the rates.”
Mr Smith claimed the Opera House was adding £1 to every ticket which would equate to more than £20,000 extra next year.
He said High Peak Borough Council informed him it was cutting its grant only 14 weeks before the festival.
In a joint statement Opera House chairman Clive Beattie and chief executive Andrew Aughton said, “We’re obviously disappointed that the Gilbert and Sullivan Festival organisers have decided to move on.
“We were quite open to a new five–year agreement, although on slightly amended lines to the previous one.
“However, any suggestion that new charges of £20,000 were to be introduced is completely untrue—we hadn’t even begun talking terms.
“We have subsidised the Festival’s rent of the Opera House for 11 years at a total of nearly £100,000 to keep the festival in Buxton, and were quite prepared to keep doing this.”
This year’s festival runs from Saturday (27 July) until Saturday, 17 August.
Professional shows are staged at weekends by the festival’s own Gilbert and Sullivan Opera Company who will perform The Pirates of Penzance, Iolanthe and Princess Ida.
Making their debut will be Lyric Opera Productions from Ireland who will perform The Mikado and HMS Pinafore.
The National Festival Orchestra accompanies all the productions in the Opera House.
There are also performances and fringe activities in the 360-seat Pavilion Arts Centre next door to the Opera House.
Numerous full-scale performances will be staged there including a youth festival with performances from four youth groups and a first UNIfest competition aimed exclusively at university societies.
The full programme is available at www.gsfestivals.org.