Monday, 06 October 2025

Floods nearly halt judges

Floods nearly halt judges

NEARLY 3,000 children participated in this year’s Henley Youth Festival as it celebrated its 30th anniversary.

“My Favourite Things” was the theme of the festival, which ended on Sunday after days of events, including musical performances, school workshops and art, film and writing competitions.

The Kenton Theatre in New Street hosted a gig night for bands and singer-songwriters, a variety night, a proms night for older musicians and a young performer night.

More than 1,755 pupils watched school performances of shows including Fartology by Stefan Gates, which explored the science behind flatulence, Along Came A Magpie by the Scarlet Oak Theatre and A Midsummer Night’s Dream by the Young Shakespeare Company.

Another 1,150 children were involved in art, music and dance workshops.

Laura Law, who chairs the festival, said: “The great thing about it is we get to see lots of children’s talents across lots of different disciplines.

“You might see a child one night playing the violin and the next night dancing and then entering the arts prize.

“There is such talent in Henley and such great teachers.

“What we found with the school performances was that some children have never been to the theatre so it was nice to give them a chance to perform on stage.”

Mrs Law, who is is stepping down after three years, added: “It was really nice to end on the 30th anniversary, particularly as I was in the first one years ago.”

The winners of the art competition received their prizes from Mayor Kellie Hinton at a ceremony at the town hall on Sunday. Fine artist Michelle Frith, who led the judging panel, said: “Having taught art to children for many years before becoming a full-time artist, I have a real love for this festival and thoroughly enjoy seeing how young artists represent and respond to the theme each year.

“Children respond in the most extraordinary ways and this year we have some really talented winners.

“I see so much potential in these children with such wonderful creative minds.”

Ms Frith revealed this year’s judging nearly didn’t take place as members of the panel had to wade through floodwater to get to the house of competition organiser Charlene Brown.

She said: “Actually, I thought it wasn’t going to happen, to be honest with you.

“When Charlene told me the situation I thought that, being American, she was being a drama queen but she was telling the truth.

“Her road was completely flooded and we had to be collected from a nearby car park by one of her kind neighbours in a truck and then taken to Charlene’s driveway.

“We were given a pair of very attractive waders to put on to reach the front door. All for the love of art.

“So it was by far the most challenging few days of judging that we’ve ever had, not only because the standard was so good this year but also due to this flooding.”

The winners included six-year-old Otto Sheldon, from Valley Road Primary School who was awarded second prize in his age category for his entry called A Little Bit of Otto, which depicted his favourite things, including a plate of sausage and peas, Minecraft, badminton and an otter.

Ms Frith said the picture had “a true Eighties retro vibe”, adding: “I love the way that Otto has used a bright, vibrant firework effect with the spirograph art as a backdrop to the smaller drawings within each circle.”

Otto said: “I included an otter because it’s basically my name and it’s my favourite animal. On Minecraft, I love playing on creative mode and making houses.”

In the 3D category, eight-year-old Jolie James was awarded first place in her age category for her model of a theatre made out of a cereal box.

The sculpture included characters from three of her favourite musicals, Newsies, Frozen and Wicked performing on stage in front of a crowd of carefully drawn audience members.

Ms Frith said: “It’s such a genuine, honest representation of what Jolie loves... the theatre.

“This is a wonderful interactive piece of art. You’ve used paints, crayons and other objects to make this brilliant piece and you should be really proud of yourself.”

Mrs Brown said: “We are always impressed by the talent of the young artists. The theme this year generated lots of interest and a colourful array of art in many different media.”

The writing competition was judged by bestselling author Amanda Jennings, from Binfield Heath.

Sarah Bell, who organised the contest, said there were some “wonderful” entries in the infants and junior categories but none in the senior category or any entries from local schools.

The winners were presented with awards at the Bell Book Shop in Bell Street by Ms Jennings, who has been judging the competition since 2012.

The winning entry in the infant category was My Favourite Sunday Walk by seven-year-old Clemmie O’Hanlan.

Mrs Jennings said: “Clemmie’s story used wonderful description and had a great sense of humour. I was impressed by her use of onomatopoeia, which really brought her story to life.”

The runner-up was five-year-old Callie Barcella with a poem called My Favourite Things.

Mrs Jennings said: “Callie’s poem had wonderful rhymes and a great natural rhythm. Overall, it felt so joyful and uplifting.”

The winner of the junior group was eight-year-old Daisy Holden with a poem called My Favourite Dream.

Mrs Jennings said: “Daisy’s poem impressed me so much. Each line was carefully selected and the poem was atmospheric and lyrical. I thought her final line was the perfect way to end.”

The runner-up was nine-year-old Isobella de Savoye.

Ms Jennings said: “Isabella’s story was very well-crafted and included lots of wonderful emotions, with some very mature, descriptive phrases. It was an impressive piece of writing.”

Mrs Bell thanked the bookshop for donating the prizes.

The film competition was judged by film-maker and director Jo Southwell, from Aston. Best animation was awarded to Charles Carey, from Trinity Primary School, for his film Guitar Man. Future documentary maker was awarded to Frank O’Brien, also from Trinity, for 24 Birds in 24 Hours. Highly commended animation was awarded to Rupert House School pupil Charlotte Vernon for Favourite Things Catwalk.

On Friday night seven music acts performed at Gig Night at the Kenton.

Musicians aged 11 to 18 played a variety of genres, inclduing acoustic indie bedroom pop, musical theatre and punk rock.

The night was presented by Peter McConnell, a ukulele player with comedy cabaret group The Yoko Mainwaring Experience.

Many of the musicians performed their own songs while others treated the audience to covers of well-known classics.

The show was opened by 13-year-old Emily Hewes, who played three original songs, Mood Swing, Pulling on the Ground and Greatest Fear, accompanying herself on the guitar.

Emily, who attends Cranford House School in Moulsford, said that she had been songwriting since she was 10 and also performed at last year’s Gig Night.

She said: “It’s really fun and a good way to communicate with music. If a tune comes into my head, I start playing my guitar and then I just think of lyrics or sometimes I think of lyrics and then the tune comes to my head.”

Mamie Armitage, 13, a singer-songwriter, who attends Queen Anne’s School in Caversham, performed three of her songs on the the piano.

Guitarist Toby Schofield and singer Bethany Davidson, who attend Highdown School and Sixth Form in Emmer Green, performed with their band Vesalius.

The pair were joined by bassist Will Braisher, who attends St Josephs’ College in Reading, and drummer Ruben Upton-Wheeler, who goes to Bulmershe School in Woodley.

The band, who are all lower sixth students, played a number of indie rock tracks including original songs Regatta and With or Without.

Ruben said: “Toby and Bethany went to the same school, so they’ve been playing since year seven.

“Toby and me are family friends and he sort of pulled me into the band about a year ago and then I pulled Will in to play bass.”

Another Highdown pupil, Raven Highly, performed two original folk songs, Screaming at Your Ghost and Vision of the Future.

Raven said: “It was really fun and I had a great time. I’ve been singing basically my entire life. I’ve been writing since I was in primary school and I picked up the guitar during lockdown.

“Whatever is going on in my life, it’s my way of processing things. Sometimes I’ll just get a random lyric idea and I build a song around that.”

Raven believes that Vision of the Future may have helped her secure a place at Goldsmiths University in London to study popular music next year. She said: “I mean, I don’t 100 per cent know for sure, but it was the one that I used in the audition and the person who was doing it seemed to really like the song. I like to think that’s the thing that tipped it over the edge.”

The Fundamentals!, a band from Marlow, performed a high-energy set, inviting the audience to clap and sing to Nineties hit Everybody by the Backstreet Boys before performing their own tracks, Dopamine and Edge of a Moshpit.

The group is made up of Sir William Borlase’s Grammar school sixth-formers Sacha Smith (drums), Ollie West (keyboards and vocals), Archie Hewson and Eddie Pratt (guitar) and lead singer and bassist Tom Hughes.

Other performers included singer-songwriter Amelia Garner, 17, who travelled from Gerrards Cross to perform after hearing about the festival from friends who attend Shiplake College. She played a number of her own pop songs, Moon Date, Spring and All That I Could Think About in a conversational style. Samira Axinei performed two musical theatre ballads, The Closest Thing to Crazy from the musical Men Who March Away by Mike Batt and I Dreamed a Dream from Les Misérables, accompanied by a pianist.

The final act was a band called Twenty Ten comprising three 13-year-olds from Caversham, bassist Spencer Watkins, guitarist Jack Wyatt and drummer Charlie Griffin.

The band, who are named after their birth year, performed punk rock hits Smells Like Teen Spirit and In Bloom by Nirvana and Supersonic by Oasis.

Jack said: “They are just songs we all like and we sounded good and played them well together. It was fun; I really enjoyed it.”

Charlie said: “It was really fun but a bit nerve-wracking because I haven’t played the drums on a stage before.”

Mrs Law, who was in the audience, said: “Gig night is great because they get to perform on a professional stage and there’s not much opportunity to do that outside of school.

“They had a sound check with professional sound engineers.

“They all had really good stage presence and it’s a big stage, especially for the solo performers.”

Pupils at schools across Henley were given the opportunity to participate in the workshops.

Valley Road was the first recipient of a new bursary called the Sing, Speak, Be award which provided them with a day of music coaching. The bursary was created in memory of Liz Balmford, a performer, coach and trainer who died in February last year. She was a former pupil of the primary school.

Valley Road was visited by Joe Cummings, a pianist and presenter at the Royal Opera House, who worked with the school choir on a number of songs and held workshops for the infants and juniors.

He taught the children songs which they performed at a whole school assembly at the end of the day.

The performance was watched by Mary Dickinson, Mrs Balmford’s mother, and festival trustees Jo Dickson and Kate Swinburne.

Mrs Dickinson said: “It was amazing, fantastic. I got quite emotional at one point because suddenly I thought of Liz when she was here.

“It’s so nice that there’s something in her memory. I was very proud.”

Mrs Dickson said: “Liz had been a special advisor at the festival who used to give feedback for singing. The award is going to go to a different school each year.

“It’s really lovely to get children who don’t always participate in singing to be involved and they all seemed to enjoy it.”

Mr Cummings said: “The children were so receptive and ready to sing. I worked with the entire school throughout the day and just taught lots of different songs and things to do with emotions and storytelling and communicating in different forms.”

Other contributors to the award include Mrs Balmford’s husband Tim and family friends Tess and Guy Ferguson.

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