Choirs are withdrawing from a major event at Cardiff's Principality Stadium next year because they are being charged what they describe as “exorbitant” prices simply to take part and sing.
The Land of Song Festival 2027 is scheduled to run from May 7 to May 9 at the stadium. Organisers have billed the event as “one of the world's largest shared singing events” that “celebrates a Welsh love of singing as a shared language of connection, community, and joy”. The headline act will be world-renowned opera singer Andrea Bocelli, in what will be his first ever headline concert in Wales.
On the final day, Sunday, May 9, adult choirs from Wales, the UK and around the world are expected to unite for a “powerful shared performance on a spectacular stadium scale”, with hopes that “singers will unite as one choir, with up to 20,000 voices coming together in one of the largest massed choir gatherings ever assembled”.
Costs criticised by choir members
However, the scale of the event may be smaller than originally hoped, as a number of choirs have decided not to attend. According to the Land of Song Festival website, each choir must pay a £150 subscription fee, and each individual choir member must also pay £42 to take part.
This pricing model has drawn criticism from some choir members, who say they will no longer participate. One woman posted on social media in response to the festival's invitation for participants to register: “My choir (like so many other choirs) has withdrawn due to the exorbitant costs. I've been a choir member for many, many years but have never had to pay to sing in a concert.
“This is proving to be a money-making racket – 20,000 choristers having to pay £42 each = £840,000. Plus £150 per choir registration fee.
“Plus travel and accommodation! Perhaps if the organisers had published the costs when they first advertised the proposed concert, then choirs would have been saved the time and effort of first registering interest, then withdrawing due to the unacceptably high costs.”
Another woman simply said: “No thank you. Not at those prices!”
Accommodation costs also a factor
One would-be participant said it is not just the registration fees that are putting choirs off. They said: “Our choir of 50 had signed up to travel from Ireland but accommodation prices are extortionate – would cost in the region of €1,000 per person for two nights to attend, not including the registration fees.
“If you (festival organisers) wanted World Voices, it may have helped if you came up with some cost effective way of welcoming the world choirs wanting to attend.”
Huw Watkins, a member of Glynneath Male Voice Choir, told the BBC that they had planned to take around 20 singers to next year's event, but it would have cost around a combined £1,000 to do so. “We couldn't get over it – we've never paid anything before to participate,” he said. “Apparently if you want hard copies of the music you've got to pay for that also. Somebody's making a lot of money from this.”
The Land of Song Festival and the Principality Stadium have been asked to comment.
