Early music festival nominated for international award

An Oxfordshire festival dedicated to medieval, renaissance and baroque music has been nominated for an international award.

The Banbury Early Music Festival said its nomination for Audience Project of the Year at the REMA Awards 2026 represented "a remarkable milestone for a festival established only three years ago".

This year's festival will take place on 26 and 27 September across the town centre before the team travels to Bruges, Belgium, for the awards ceremony on 25 November.

The festival directors said that while early music "can sometimes be perceived as something specialist or inaccessible" they had always "wanted to break down that barrier".

The REMA awards celebrate innovative and impactful projects shaping the early music sector in Europe and beyond.

European early music covers the period between 1250 and 1750, particularly when performed using musical instruments from the time, such as the lute, crumhorn and baroque violin.

The Banbury festival was established in 2023 by early musicians Dylan McCaig, Heidi Fardell and Alison Kinder, and has been bringing leading professional musicians together with amateur performers, young musicians, instrument makers, local organisations and audiences.

The nomination means it will represent the UK on the European stage alongside Team Recorder, a project created by recorder player, educator and YouTube personality Sarah Jeffery.

The directors said they were "enormously proud" seeing the festival on the international shortlist.

They said in a statement: "From the beginning, we wanted to create something firmly rooted in Banbury but ambitious enough to attract outstanding musicians and audiences from across the country.

"We strongly believe that people should not have to travel to a major city to experience world class music and culture."

They added that the mixture of renowned artists, local musicians, school pupils, amateurs and complete newcomers who took part in the festival made it "so exciting".

The nomination belongs "just as much to our audiences, volunteers, musicians, workshop participants, supporters and the wider Banbury community as it does to us", said the directors.