Dame Patricia Routledge praised the arts as “the soul of the nation” as she declared the box office open for the 2025 Festival of Chichester.
Event organisers and festival supporters gathered at the Novium as festival chairman Phil Hewitt and the festival committee launched this year’s programme.
Dame Patricia spoke to the gathering as the festival’s inspirational and always-encouraging patron: “What a privilege to be invited to set off this 13th year of the Festival of Chichester.
“The arts are the soul of the nation and we honour them here more than anywhere else, I think, in the country. So God bless and on we go and Bob’s your uncle!”
Festival Chairman Phil Hewitt says, “This year’s festival will be a bumper year with the Festival of Chichester offering its biggest programme in years, packed full of events all celebrating the great city we are privileged to live and work in.”
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Images credit: Matt Goddard
