This "inventive and not at all flippant little festival"[1] offered performances mounted on a shoestring budget, which were held in a hall at Ledlanet, then the home of the publisher John Calder.
[2] Ledlanet Nights, described at some length in Calder's autobiography, Pursuit, developed as a general festival from modest beginnings.
As well as art exhibitions, the mix included one- or two-person shows of different types ranging from those of Geraint Evans to Ian Wallace or Donald Swann.
[citation needed] Handel works, then much less well known, featured prominently at Ledlanet with productions including Agrippina[4] and Alcina.
Jill Gomez and Josephine Barstow were among several singers appearing who made an impression there at a relatively early stage in their careers, in Il Re Pastore and Una cosa rara,[5] respectively.