Diss Organ Festival
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Announcement - Cancelation of the 2020 Event The Diss Organ Festival has taken the very difficult decision to cancel this year's event which would have been held on the 16th-17th May 2020. The health and safety of our visitors, exhibitors and volunteers is our most important priority and we therefore feel this is the most appropriate decision to take at this time. However, we are very mindful that the current situation is changing rapidly and important decisions are being made almost daily. For now, the plan is to move Diss Organ Festival to the weekend of 15th & 16th May 2021. We have had a very positive response for this year's Festival and had achieved a Heritage Lottery Grant and grants from, Diss Town Council, Diss Cyclothon, Norfolk Arts Fund, Diss Town Team, to make it even better so everyone involved is saddened by the necessary postponement. All being well, we are looking forward to seeing you again next year. Jonny Ling Chair of Trustees, Mechanical Music Museum Trust. Vice Chair, Mechanical Organ Owners Society. Sunday 16th May 2021 The Diss Organ Festival IS BACK! (all being well with Covid-19) Back by popular demand, the largest event of its kind in the UK. The Diss Organ Festival will return to this picturesque Norfolk market town, on Sunday 16th May 2021 from 10.00 til 17.00. A FREE EVENT! Self-playing musical instruments were hugely popular from the mid-18th Century to the 1930s thrilling audiences in homes, concert halls, in the streets and in cafés with 'live' music being played without the need for 'live' musicians, Although they were once enjoyed by the masses, in today's digital world these music machines are now seldom seen or heard and have almost been forgotten. However, the Diss Organ Festival celebrates this magical world, bringing together the Mechanical Organ Owners Society, The Grange Musical Collection, The Music Box Society GB, The British Organ Grinders Association, Mechanical Music Radio and The Theatre Organ Club - all voluntary organisations which help maintain the instruments and preserve their heritage. The Festival, which is unique in the UK, begins on Saturday, May 15th 2021 with an Open Day at the Grange Musical Collection, one of largest displays of its kind in the country featuring everything from tiny Victorian music boxes and ‘Polyphons’, self-playing pianos to street and fairground organs. Recent additions to the Grange collection include two colossal theatre organs by Wurlitzer and Compton which were made to supply sound for 'silent' movies. Educational (and delightful) tours will demonstrate the instruments, with working models illustrating their intriguing and often intricate mechanisms. In the historic Norfolk market town of Diss on Sunday, May 16th about fifty mechanical musical instruments, ranging from concert, fairground, busker and Dutch street organs, many well over a century old, will form a trail through the streets and parks of Diss. Instrument owners will be happy talk about their music machines and all will be demonstrated in play. This has proved to be both educational and highly entertaining. Indoor activities include workshops, allowing young people to build their own ‘busker’ organ and pre-teens to programme music on mini music boxes, and an organ-restoration workshop. There will be demonstrations of 30 music boxes; a recital of music on a theatre Wurlitzer-style organ; silent film screening with theatre organ accompaniment; and a presentation on the 16th Century Italian Tivoli water-organ restored in 2003 by a Diss company.. The Festival organisers are most grateful to their key partners and sponsors including the Town Council, Community Team, Corn Hall Trust, Heritage Lottery, Diss Cyclothon, Norfolk Arts Fund and Norfolk & Norwich Festival, for which the Organ Festival is a ‘recommended’ event, TW Gaze and The Music Box Society of Great Britain, The British Organ Grinders Association, Mechanical Music Radio and The Theatre Organ Club. Jonny Ling Chair of Trustees, Mechanical Music Museum Trust. Vice Chair, Mechanical Organ Owners Society. www.dissorganfestival.co.uk 
This large festival celebrates Mechanical Music, filling the beautiful town of Diss with amazing sights and sounds.
Bought to you by the Mechanical Organ Owners Society. Follow our Facebook Page for more. 
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