Video by Matt Goddard
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00:00As happy as can be. All good friends and jolly good company.
00:07What a privilege to be invited to set off this 13th year of the Chichester Festival,
00:21which used to be the festivities and this grew out of it, didn't it?
00:26Entirely independently, yes.
00:28Last Saturday night, after a superb concert by the Chichester Symphony Orchestra,
00:41I had a conversation with a gentleman and we asked each other what brought us to Chichester in the first place.
00:52In my case, I was invited in 1969, anybody alive who remembers that,
01:02to be part of the festival theatre programme and I came down here to be in three places.
01:14And I asked the gentleman what brought him here because he had a busy working life elsewhere in the country
01:24and he said, quite simple, the arts. And that of course is true.
01:30I think we go beyond the famous Cheltman, who has heard that they have several arts occasions, celebrations.
01:44We have those celebrations all in one at the same time.
01:52The variety of programmes is quite astonishing and also the prices that are asked for seating are extraordinary.
02:07Really amazing. I don't know how you keep things going really on £7 a seat, £12, even £20.
02:19A friend of mine was in the West End the other week where he often goes up to London
02:27and in the afternoon he thought he'd see a show and the price asked for a ticket was £235.
02:43Absolutely disgraceful. Now at the theatre here we know that costs are going up and inflation goes on abounding.
02:54But everything is available within our limits and I always think you spend your money where your heart is.
03:07There is, as Phil has told us, a wonderful variety of events and a larger variety than ever, I think you said.
03:21And also making the practicality of the place aware, not just the arts.
03:33The arts are the soul of the nation and we honour them here more than anywhere else, I think, in the country.
03:47So God bless and on we go and bonjour.