I wanted change . . . I got it in spades at the opening day at the Three Choirs Festival in Hereford. It was the 291st opening day of the Festival which alternates between Hereford, Gloucester and Worcester. We woke up to cold rain and gray skies, which means the heat wave is over, but as a man passing me on the street said, “English summers… now it is back to normal!” It is also quite windy, meaning that my umbrella blew inside out several times as I was walking back from the Cathedral just now.

This year’s theme marks the 100th anniversary of women’s suffrage in the United Kingdom, and as stated by the program: ” … this year’s Opening Service affirms women’s right to an equal place in society and in the Church, and celebrates their distinctive contribution to our worshipping life.”

Every single one of the four congregational hymns was written by a woman: Jan Berry (b. 1953), Rosalind Brown (b. 1953), Elizabeth Cosnett (b. 1936), and Ally Barrett, b. 1975). There were several “Reflections,” (non-Biblical readings) which were written and read by women including Dame Julian of Norwich (1342-1416) [silly me, I never knew Julian of Norwich was a woman!], and an extract of an autobiography of Margery Kempe (1371-1438) and “Listening to God,” by Mother Mary Clare (1906-88).

We also heard The Right Reverend June Osborne, Bishop of Llandaff, give the homily who began by describing her captivation by a BBC documentary on The New York Times, and how it broke the story of Harvey Weinstein, leading to the rise of the #MeToo movement.  She said that we had seen male domination in all areas of society, including at music festivals such as this one, so it was mind-bending to have all this emphasis on women. She said she received a lot of vitriolic mail when she suggested that girls take part in Cathedral music programs, not just boys!

I had a great seat in the Cathedral, right in the main nave, and even though I was a bit far away from the front, there are many video monitors spread around so you can easily see what’s happening.

I especially liked all the attention paid to the organist, Peter Dyke. Through the monitor, I could see him pushing pistons, hitting the general cancel button, changing manuals, all those ordinary things which organists do but always seem to impress listeners.

Hereford is the smallest of the three cathedrals, as compared to Gloucester and Worcester, and probably is the cleanest in terms of sound. However, that means that there aren’t the rolling reverberant acoustics in this building as I have been accustomed to in other large cathedrals.

That said, the mixed choir of men and boys plus women sang Hubert Parry’s “Te Deum in D” and for the anthem, William Mathias’ “As truly as God is our Father so just as truly is he our Mother,” certainly in keeping with the women’s equality theme. We of course sang “God save the Queen” at the beginning of the service, but what I was so surprised to hear was it pitched in the key of B-flat. That means that people in the pews had to sing a high G in the last phrase, and lots of high Fs! [I used to think that we shouldn’t make congregations sing above a high E-flat!]

Of course, there was plenty of pageantry, with the procession of bishops, “high sheriffs and Her Majesty’s Lord Lieutenants,” in the beginning of the service

After a “jacket potato” lunch, I went from the solemn pageantry of the Opening Service to a Family Drumming Workshop where we were banging on big discarded plastic drums of all sizes in primitive rhythms. Here was the description which drew me in:

Join Bym from Beat Bang Bong to learn some upcycled carnival drumming. Use recycled bottles, buttons, bearings, buckets, broom handles and barrels to play some musical games and compose your own percussion piece. To add some upcycled melody, you can make your own lollypop kazoo to take home afterwards and carry on the fun.

After doing this for about 50 minutes, I really got warmed up before bundling up to face the cold outside. It was so, so much fun—and of course, we made our own homemade kazoos out of popsicle sticks and rubber bands.

What fun! I thoroughly enjoyed myself!