A season starts in mid March and includes the mid-March concert of J. S. Bach's St Matthew, St John Passion or Handel's Messiah (latest addition), then a Youth Competition and the main Festival usually in first week of April but definitely avoiding Easter if it falls in April.

These concerts are open to the public as singers at a fee and rehearsals are held in Dorking, the traditional home of the Festival.

1870), the older sister of the English composer, Ralph Vaughan Williams and her friend, Lady Evangeline (Eva, b.

This was a time musical festivals were like a movement, following in the line of Mary Wakefield having founded one of the earliest in Cumbria in 1885.

Eva (Lady Farrer, born Evangeline Knox) belonged to an Irish family who were often abroad.

But records show that Meggie was visiting Abinger Hall since 1892 and supposedly was acquainted with Ida Darwin (née Farrer).

This, however, is not accidental since the Vaughan Williamses (through their mother Margaret Wedgewood) were great nephews of Charles Darwin.

The festival is a registered charity in England and Wales and entirely run by volunteers most of whom are members of participating choirs as well as other locals who do not sing at all.

After the death of Vaughan Williams in 1958, the festival committee commissioned David McFall to design two identical bronze reliefs with a likeness of the composer: one was placed in St Martin's Church and one in the Dorking Halls.

However, with the Vaughan Williamses and the Farrers being of a liberal ideology, Ralph also saw the opportunity to use the competition as a way to include and reach more people with music.

Ralph Vaughan Williams was also to hold this position until 1953, a term which remains the longest in the conductorship of the festival to date.

The appointment as adjudicator to the Festival is highly regarded by music professionals due to the quality of the competition, despite the fact that all the choirs are amateur.

In the evening, the main festival chorus is joined by a professional orchestra and soloists to perform concerts of a usually above amateur standard.

The Children's Day was started in by LHMC in 1921 led by Margaret Vaughan Williams after overcoming many huddles by the County.