Festival 2024 Reviews
Here are some of the comments we received
during the 2024 Marches Makers Festival
during the 2024 Marches Makers Festival
From a post on the Knighton Open Forum on Facebook:
Well worth a visit, beautiful work and a friendly welcome at every location! We loved The Book Arts Stories Exhibition at The Parish Hall.. so much to inspire, thank you all!
From Ellie Chowns (North Hereford MP candidate Green Party) via Facebook:
Amazing creativity was on show at the Marches Makers festival in Kington at the weekend!
Dozens of local artists and craftspeople came together to showcase their work through exhibitions, open studios, demonstrations and more.
Wonderful to see the town buzzing with so much creativity and so many visitors!
From a comment on the Marches Makers Facebook page:
An amazing event. Id never been before and look forward to visiting next time.
From a visitor via Facebook Kington Chat group:
Really enjoyed going around the different venues with the family. Very interesting things on sale and the exhibition at the church was really well set up. Thank you to all who put their time and effort into making this a really wonderful event.
From Border Bean to Kington Chat group:
Congratulations to all of the MMF team, demonstrators, arts and crafts exhibitors and venue hosts for this weekend! Teamwork, enthusiasm, hard work and helped to make a truly wonderful festival for which Kington can be proud! Hope everyone enjoys a bit of a rest!?
From an artist exhibiting in St Mary's Church:
"Thank you Clare - for bringing together a fabulous exhibition and ensuring everything ran smoothly throughout.
The whole event (throughout the town) was brilliant and I was proud to be a participant."
From Nancy Frost at the Market Hall venue:
"The Market Hall offered visitors opportunities to engage with demonstrators and to experience making art of their own, and we were witness to some powerful moments of sharing and personal discovery."
From Clare Conrad at St Mary's Church:
'It was fantastic for the church exhibition. Many visitors, sales, and positive comments. Elizabeth Banks, who opened it at the private view on Friday said how fabulous the exhibition was, and how wonderful it was that all the artists were from a 20 mile radius of Kington, and how good the festival was for Kington.'
From the Marches Book Arts Group:
"The Marches Book Arts Group are delighted and gratified by the numbers of visitors of all ages to the Telling book art stories exhibition. The Parish Hall was positively buzzing and proved a perfect venue to display our work and share the almost infinite possibilities and potential of book arts to a warm responsive audience. Our winning of the Christine Forrester Prize for best exhibit was the icing on the cake of such a successful sunny weekend. Our thanks to the festival organisers for providing this opportunity, and we're already looking forward to next year."
Some comments written in the visitors book at the Art Exhibition in St Mary's Church:
"Beautiful, lovely setting too" - a visitor from Stourbridge
"Inspiring and brilliant" - a visitor from Gloucester
"Very high standard of beautiful work" a visitor from Stroud, Glos
"Beautiful exhibition - so lucky we have such talented artists in our area" - a visitor from Tel-Aviv, Israel
"Excellent exhibition, keep it up" - a visitor from Cornwall
"Glorious, beautiful" - a visitor from Clun
"Amazing talent" - a visitor from Kington
A letter from Elizabeth Banks CBE DL, Mayor of Kington:
"Dear Clare
Kington Town Council would like to congratulate the Marches Makers Festival Team for the successful art festival in Kington. The standard was extremely high. The exhibits in the Church were well layout and this is first time that this nave has been used so successful. I know just how long it took you and Peter Horrocks to carefully place the art works on the screens and on the tables to make it work well.
There were also exhibits over the town; from the interesting artworks from the Primary School in the Border Bean; to Kington Art Group in the Playhouse in Bridge Street and at RidgeBank Gallery which had an amazing show of Wayne Summers, as well as many other venues.
The Festival brought a considerable number of people to Kington. I would like to thank all of you who worked so hard to make it such a success."
"Dear Clare
Kington Town Council would like to congratulate the Marches Makers Festival Team for the successful art festival in Kington. The standard was extremely high. The exhibits in the Church were well layout and this is first time that this nave has been used so successful. I know just how long it took you and Peter Horrocks to carefully place the art works on the screens and on the tables to make it work well.
There were also exhibits over the town; from the interesting artworks from the Primary School in the Border Bean; to Kington Art Group in the Playhouse in Bridge Street and at RidgeBank Gallery which had an amazing show of Wayne Summers, as well as many other venues.
The Festival brought a considerable number of people to Kington. I would like to thank all of you who worked so hard to make it such a success."
