Hunstanton Organ Festival 2002

Hunstanton 9th Street Organ Festival - 20th-21st July 2002
Pictures by Heacham~On~Line News

A host of delightful street organs, with their enthusiastic grinders, took to the streets of Hunstanton on 20th-21st July 2002 for the 9th annual Festival. There were 30 participating organs.
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Interest in street organs - compact, mobile and mostly hand operated - saw a revival in the seventies. Since there were so few old models available, enthusiasts began to produce copies and, gradually, the art of  building street organs was revived. This revival first started in Germany, the home of the street organ and spread to France, Belgium and the United Kingdom. Because of the need to keep a street organ compact, the number of notes is limited to between 20 and around 45. However, since one note can play on ranks of pipes, the actual pipe count can be a staggering 150 plus, often bent (mitred) to fit in the small space of the case. The cost of a street organ ranges from £1,500 for a simple model upwards of £15,000 for the most sophisticated, with music being provided in the form of cardboard 'books' or paper rolls. Recent developments have now led to the advent of music on microchip for these delightful instruments - an innovation that detracts not at all from the wonderful sound they produce!

Music: Painting The Town Red White & Blue.