Libera Dreams

Although I've never been, I had to research the town for someone who went there for a weekend break last year, so I can tell you there are plenty of things to see there. It is a major tourist destination.

https://chesterattractions.co.uk/

That site has a handy tourist map:

https://chesterattractions.co.uk/wp-con ... e_2022.pdf

Miniature railway, Roman remains, a castle, museums, and the worlds oldest racecourse. Should the latter be your thing there is a Midsummer meeting on the 27th July where you can watch the old nags trot around. Couldn't find much in terms of music, unless you are keen on live music in a gin bar...

But for any of you arriving early and stuck for something to do on the Friday eve, there is an open air theatre which will be playing The Gangs of New York.

Cool! Thank you.

Surpinto wrote: ↑<span title="Sat Jun 22, 2024 1:01 am">5 months ago</span>

theriverflowson wrote: ↑<span title="Fri Jun 21, 2024 7:14 pm">5 months ago</span>

Surpinto wrote: ↑<span title="Fri Jun 21, 2024 6:05 pm">5 months ago</span> While I don't have any specific recommendation (Yorkie, can you help?) my understanding is that choirs are on summer break during this time, so services are usually done by a substitute choir or none at all. Obviously, I have no idea about any specific churches/cathedrals in that area, but this is my general understanding.

Uhh, you are right, I always forget about this Well, there might be a lot of other things to do and explore, so this is fine for me.

I think you'll find plenty, at the very least the cathedrals themselves are supposed to be quite something even without a choral service. Though I'm sure that a daily service without music is available for those wanting it in such prominent cathedrals.

As you're only coming to Lincoln, theriverflowson, this won't serve yourself and it's only a tiny information that I have about Chester Cathedral for Friday, 26th July: The visiting choir on that day is due to be the Thames Philharmonic Choir at the 5:30pm Evensong.
Not sure if such choirs sing several evensongs in a row over a weekend.

filiarheni wrote: ↑<span title="Sat Jun 22, 2024 5:13 pm">5 months ago</span> ...information that I have about Chester Cathedral for Friday, 26th July: The visiting choir on that day is due to be the Thames Philharmonic Choir at the 5:30pm Evensong.
Not sure if such choirs sing several evensongs in a row over a weekend.

Thanks for the info, I'd been waiting for the Cathedral to publish their service schedule PDF, but you have answered it!

From the Thames Philharmonic Choir website:
Thursday 25th - Sunday 28 July 2024
Cathedral Residency at Chester

Some photos of Ely posted by Libera today, including one posted in two halves, here combined.



What are the songs? The two halves one must be Ave Maria? Then God Only Knows, Angel, and the other two??

We are four days away from the concert at Chester Cathedral, and ticket sales are barely progressing.
Only half of the tickets have been sold so far.

The situation is a bit better in Lincoln, with two-thirds of the tickets taken.

https://www.ticketsource.co.uk/libera

Let's hope for a last-minute surge in sales in Chester.
They would need to have a contact on site who would have posters and could put them up all over town in busy places.

Isn't Chester closer to population centers in the surrounding area than Lincoln?

Seems like Chester should have the larger attendance than Lincoln if going by that metric alone. That and the Chester concert is on a Saturday which is far more convenient for attendance. How strange!

I do hope they can sell more tickets in Chester on the day.

fan_de_LoK wrote: ↑<span title="Tue Jul 23, 2024 7:17 pm">4 months ago</span> We are four days away from the concert at Chester Cathedral, and ticket sales are barely progressing.
Only half of the tickets have been sold so far.

The situation is a bit better in Lincoln, with two-thirds of the tickets taken.

https://www.ticketsource.co.uk/libera

Let's hope for a last-minute surge in sales in Chester.
They would need to have a contact on site who would have posters and could put them up all over town in busy places.

I said two years ago when Libera did those summer festival performances in front of one man and his dog that they’re not doing a good job of promoting themselves.
I know that a decade ago there were quite a number of Libera fans who did a great job of promoting them by recording Meet ‘n’ Greets and behind-the-scenes tour footage and posting it on Youtube.

Libera haven’t even released a DVD for a decade. It’s not sustainable.

This seems to be a problem in common with many “voluntary organisations” and its hardly a new issue. I remember discussing this back in 2008 when everything was face to face rather than online. It is always difficult to get enough people to do the more mundane behind the scenes work and Libera seems to be no different on this score.

I am not sure what advertising takes place in or around the various venues but my gut feeling is that it is not a lot. Looking a bit wider there are the pop ups on Youtube videos plus a few tweets etc on social media and announcement on the libera website but unless you are already aware of Libera its unlikely that this will be enough to draw you in or make you travel any distance to go to a concert or more importantly a first concert.

I am glad that Mercurial used the word promotion as that is exactly the right word. In an ideal world you would have a long term strategy in place to raise and widen the general awareness of Libera and get people involved. Exactly what form this takes could be argued over and it would not be a quick fix but it really does seem to be necessary. The days of TV appearances are for now over although even those in the 2000’s were mainly to an older demographic. Its not easy.

To make it absolutely clear this is not a dig at the current volunteers who already give up so much of their time to keep things going. It would probably need an expansion of the behind the scenes set up to enable these sort of actions to take place.

Not long now til Chester. Last visit was a long time ago !.

As I mentioned before, it's a major tourist destination, on the day of the concert there is a race meeting at the historic racetrack and it is mid-summer, peak tourist season, I simply fail to believe there aren't people in Chester who couldn't fill that Cathedral, if they simply knew the concert existed...

In brighter news, I have discovered Chester has not one but TWO Wetherspoons. That's my dinner sorted.

The weird thing is I have been to Chester many, many times, as it is the interchange on one of the train routes to North Wales, but I have never been out of the station!

@Citlec
TWO Wetherspoons seems a good option for a meeting before the concert ?
Do we want to meet?

I have an advanced booking for my train to save money, which is due to arrive in Chester at 14.44, I anticipate being at the cathedral by 3pm, unless I develop an unforeseen compulsion to do a Silly Walk, that delays my perambulatory progress.https://youtu.be/iV2ViNJFZC8

Apologies, but I have no DM/PM facility at this moment to confirm details in person, which is by design.

I should be in Chester at around 13:00 with my car.

Great I'll look out for your car, this is it, right?

The car is too eye-catching. I'm more in favour of understatement.
I don't do it under the following vehicle.