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The Wilfred Owen Festival returns in March 2025
March 2025 will see the return of the Wilfred Owen Festival to Oswestry.
The catalyst for the revival of the festival has been brought about by the incredibly generous offer from the maker of the Wilfred Owen violin and other associated instruments to donate them to the people of Oswestry and the town of the poet’s birth.
Steve Burnett, the renowned Edinburgh -based instrument maker, hand crafted these instruments from the limb of an old sycamore tree that still grows in the grounds of the former Craiglockhart Hospital in Edinburgh where Wilfred Owen was treated for shell shock during WW1 – and where he met fellow soldier, poet and mentor Siegfried Sassoon.
The instruments include: The Wilfred Owen Violin, the Siegfried Sassoon Violin, the Robert Graves Violin, the Maggie Mc Bean Viola (matron at Craiglockhart) and the Rivers & Brock Cello (named after the doctors who treated Owen whilst in hospital). The Wilfred Owen Violin last played in Oswestry during the 2018 Centenary festival when it was played by actor and musician Thoren Ferguson at the unveiling of the Wilfred Owen statue in Cae Glas park.
Now it will return to its new permanent home along with the other instruments and be handed over at an official event on the 15th March 2025 at Oswestry Guildhall.
Festival organiser Chris Woods, who was also instrumental in getting the commissioning of the Wilfred Owen statue for the town of Oswestry, has been working with Steve Burnett to bring about this opportunity said “This is a remarkably generous offer and I like Steve want to ensure this wonderful gift to the town is appreciated and used as an envoy to promote peace and reconciliation in these troubled times.”
The festival will run from 15th March to the 23rd March 2025 and feature a series of events including music, poetry, drama, film, informative talks and more.
Folk and Fiddles at Oswestry Cricket Club on Saturday 15th March at 7pm is an evening of Folk Music by local talented singers, songwriters and musicians including performances with instruments from the Wilfred Owen String Quartet.
Tuesday 18th March 6pm – Oswestry Cae Glas Park. An informal commemoration of Wilfred Owen’s birthday with the laying of a wreath at the statue of Wilfred Owen. The festival in partnership with Oswestry Film Society will be showing the film Journeys End at the Hermon Chapel on Wednesday 19th March at 7.30pm.
On Thursday the 20th at Oswestry Parish Centre, 7pm, there will be a talk by the author of the book The Fiddle, Natalie Cumming, and its story of a true and amazing yet harrowing journey of a family and a precious violin fleeing the Bolsheviks in Russia through the Nazi concentration camps during the WW2 to the present day and its refurbishment on the TV programme the Repair Shop.
A double bill of Drama is next on Saturday 22nd March again at the Hermon Chapel at 7pm. Local actor and writer Shaun Higgins will portray Wilfred Owen in his play Strange Meetings which documents the later life of Owen. This is followed by the Edinburgh Fringe award- winning solo performance of actor and writer Ross Erickson in “The Unknown Soldier”. A stunning piece of work and not to be missed.
Earlier in the day at Oswestry Library local author of the book “Wilfred Owen Poet of Oswestry” will be giving a talk about Wilfred Owen’s life. Details available from the library.
The final event of the festival on at 7.30pm on Sunday 23rd March at Christ Church, Oswestry, a classical music concert directed by Oswestry’s Chris Symons and featuring the Wilfred Owen String Quartet of instruments. The music for the concert has been chosen to reflect the festival’s general theme of Peace and Reconciliation and will include Elgar’s glorious Piano Quintet of 1918. Vaughan Williams’s “The Lark Ascending” and other short works, played by various combinations, will reflect the same mood including the hauntingly beautiful John William’s, Schindlers List which will be performed using another very special violin as written about in the book “The Fiddle” by Natalie Cumming and mentioned earlier in this article.
The festival has also secured funding for the delivery of educational workshops related to Wilfred Owens poetry to several local Primary Schools.
For tickets on all events and further information regarding the festival visit www.wilfredowenfestival.co.uk
The festival has been supported by Oswestry Town Council, the Mary Hignett Bequest Fund and The Stonehouse Brewery.
