Festival history
The Festival was founded in 1921 as the Thanet Competitive Musical Festival. No documents survive from that year, but it is clear from later references that the Secretary from the start was Miss Olive Raven. She was a person of boundless energy, who continued as Secretary for over forty years, and was the life and soul of the Festival.
In this, our centenary year, we are unable to hold a festival, for the first time since the war, but we have created an online exhibition including all old newspaper coverage from our archives, and text written by a former TMDF Chairman, the late James Gillespie.
We have also added lots more data from programmes from 1980 on, so if you took part in any festival from 1980 to 2020, you should be able to find your name in the appropriate year! I've added marks where I have them, and will gladly add more if I can access the old records.
This is an ongoing archive, and I would love to add any further information... photos, cuttings, incidents etc! Do let me know... tmdf@live.co.uk
