International Gilbert and Sullivan Festival

Scene from SavoyNet's Yeomen, the Festival winner in 2013

The Festival began as mostly a competition among amateur G&S performing troupes from Britain and around the world, with up to a dozen or so amateur performances.[9][27] On the weeknights during each Festival, "the best non-professional groups from the UK and overseas compete for the International Champions title."[25] Some groups perform year after year at the Festival, but some companies, especially those travelling from North America, South Africa, Australia and other distant places, may visit only occasionally or once. Others meet and rehearse entirely at the Festival. The day of performance for each amateur group is hectic, with move-in to the theatre at 9 a.m., lighting call at 11 a.m., the one and only tech-dress rehearsal (with the Festival orchestra) in the afternoon, the performance in the evening, and move-out immediately afterwards.[9]

A professional adjudicator critiqued each amateur performance immediately after the curtain fell. The adjudicator then scored each performance, and both group and individual awards were announced at the end of the Festival.[7][28] At the first Festival in 1994, first prize was awarded to the production of Utopia, Limited, presented by the Gilbert & Sullivan Society of Maine, in the US (then known as the G&S Society of Hancock County). The Derby Gilbert & Sullivan Company won the first prize more often than any other company (six times); and the South Anglia Savoy Players won five times and placed second four times. Festival Productions, Ireland, won in three consecutive years, 2007 to 2009. Individual awards were also presented for performers, directors and musical directors.[29] The internet group SavoyNet, which has competed each year since 1997, were Festival Champions in 2013 and 2018 and are the first and only company to present all 14 G&S operas at the Festival.[30][31] By the end of the second decade of the Festival, the number of amateur productions each year had decreased, and after the pandemic, the live adjudications were discontinued, but cash prizes are given for Festival and UNIFest champions and runners up.[32]

The Festival organizers have also rehearsed and presented, some years, an adult "Festival production" or a "Youth Production" (for performers aged 9 to 19).[6][9] Beginning in 2015, they have presented a "Bus Pass Opera" production (for performers over 60).[33] A "Unifest" competition among university groups is presented simultaneously, as part of the Festival fringe.[11][34][35]

The Royal Hall, Harrogate, hosted most of the main stage performances from 2014 to 2022.

As the Festival matured, it presented more and more professional performances, first on weekends and now throughout the programme. These are given by companies such as the Carl Rosa Opera Company, Opera della Luna,[36] the New York Gilbert and Sullivan Players,[37] Charles Court Opera, and the Festival's self-produced National Gilbert & Sullivan Opera Company, which has starred such well-known G&S performers as Richard Suart, Simon Butteriss, Bruce Graham, Gillian Knight, Barry Clark, Michael Rayner, Patricia Leonard, Donald Maxwell, Jill Pert, Gareth Jones, Oliver White, Rebecca Bottone, Ian Belsey and the Opera Babes. John Owen Edwards, David Russell Hulme, David Steadman, Andrew Nicklin and John Andrews have served as musical director of the company.[6][28][38] Sky Arts calls these performers "some of the UK’s finest exponents of musical theatre".[25] Raymond J. Walker wrote of the National G&S Opera Company:

"With a reputation for strong casts [and] energetic delivery, traditionally fresh interpretations are brought to roles familiar to a large proportion of the [Festival] audiences. With good stars like Jill Pert and Richard Suart in key roles, we were assured of an excellent evening’s entertainment. ... Care is always taken with the staging and lighting of these ... productions and, as with Princess Ida last year, they can match a West End show. ... Throughout, the chorus was outstanding. ... the strength of singing from the twenty-strong chorus in forte passages was spectacular".[39]

Uniquely among professional companies in Britain, other than D'Oyly Carte, the National G&S Opera Company has presented all 13 of the extant Savoy Operas.[40] The Daily Telegraph "thoroughly enjoyed [the company's] spirited production" of Utopia, Limited in 2011, an opera that has rarely been given a professional staging in Britain over the past century.[41] In 2012 the Festival mounted the first full-scale professional production with orchestra of The Grand Duke in Britain since the 19th century.[42] In 2010, the National G&S Opera Company presented its first production outside of the Festival, The Yeomen of the Guard, at Oxford Castle.[43][44] The company soon began touring its productions in repertory from June to August each summer,[45] giving performances in up to six towns and cities,[46] including Buxton.[13] A review of the opening night of the 2014 tour praised the direction, choreography and conducting of The Pirates of Penzance and said of the company:

They are a real find with strong production values, a great orchestra and first class singing. Musically, this is a very strong show. It all looks marvellous with picture book settings and eye catching costumes plus a full and energetic cast. ... It all works superbly with a company obviously enjoying themselves. The chorus work is top notch, and they all come across as individuals.[47]

The National G&S Opera Company has generally staged four productions at the Festival each summer since 2015,[33][48] giving up to 16 performances there, while the other professional companies usually give a few performances each.[33][37] In 2018, in connection with the 25th anniversary of the Festival, the company presented six productions,[22] including the first professional production of Haddon Hall since the 19th century.[49]

All of the competition and the weekend professional performances have been given on the Festival's main stage. From 1994 to 2013, that was the Frank Matcham-designed 900-seat Buxton Opera House.[50] From 2014 to 2022, the main stage was the 1,100-seat Royal Hall in Harrogate, another Matcham-designed theatre. In 2023 all of the Festival's main stage performances returned to the Buxton Opera House.[51] These performances are nearly always accompanied by the "National Festival Orchestra".[9] A review of a 2010 performance noted, "The music was up to [the Festival's] usual high standard, with the orchestra (leader, Sally Robinson) ... giving a superb and sprightly reading of the Overture and score throughout."[39] The Festival also hosts dozens of performances and fringe activities in smaller venues. In Buxton, these include the 360-seat Pavilion Arts Centre.[50][52] In Harrogate, some fringe performances were held in the 500-seat Harrogate Theatre and others at various venues in and around the town.[9][33]

The "fringe" activities have included performances, master classes and lectures by members of the original D'Oyly Carte Opera Company (such as Valerie Masterson, Thomas Round, Gillian Knight, Kenneth Sandford, John Ayldon and John Reed) and other professionals, and a late night Festival Club, where cabaret performances are given each evening after the opera, and sometimes a G&S singalong is conducted.[7] Some years have included scholarly symposia,[53] and rarely revived works by Gilbert or separately by Sullivan are also seen.[54] There is also a G&S memorabilia fair, providing a chance for collectors and gift hunters to buy and sell G&S recordings, DVDs, books, scores, figurines and other items of interest.[6][55] Fringe events also include recitals, concerts, lectures and productions of lesser-known works by Gilbert without Sullivan, Sullivan without Gilbert, works that played as companion pieces with the Gilbert and Sullivan operas during their original productions and other Victorian and Edwardian works.[56]

The Festival serves as a "lightning-rod" of G&S activity worldwide. G&S performers and audiences from one part of the world can see performances by groups from other parts of the world. Performances in the traditional style mix with avant garde ones, and G&S scholars can communicate with a wide audience of enthusiasts.[57]

Buxton, an intimate, yet bustling spa town located in the Peak District about an hour southeast of Manchester, has proved to be an excellent setting for summer opera festivals, with good choices for lodging, dining and local sightseeing. There are nearby castles (for example, Peveril Castle), stately homes (e.g. Chatsworth House, Haddon Hall, Hardwick Hall and Calke Abbey); and numerous limestone caverns, including Poole's Cavern, right at the edge of Buxton. The small size of the town allows visitors and performers to meet and mingle freely during the course of the Festival. Jean Dufty, in Gilbert & Sullivan News wrote: "The amateur performances were of a very high standard.... There is a lovely atmosphere in Buxton of Gilbert and Sullivan thriving, being enjoyed, and drawing everyone together as a family."[58][59] The Festival has developed "a reputation for being one of the friendliest musical festivals anywhere, with people returning year after year to soak up its special atmosphere."[59]

A feature in Gilbert & Sullivan News commented: "The amateur performances were of a very high standard. ... There is a lovely atmosphere ... of Gilbert and Sullivan thriving, being enjoyed, and drawing everyone together as a family."[60][59] In addition, the Festival aims to raise awareness and funds for its organizers' efforts to re-introduce G&S into British schools.[34][35] The Festival has been featured in several British television shows and in the documentary films Oh Mad Delight[61] and A Source of Innocent Merriment.[62] Sky Arts broadcast its features about the Festival and Gilbert and Sullivan several times in 2010.[25]