THE fact it takes two weeks to convert Worcester Cathedral into a concert venue for the prestigious Three Choirs Festival tells you all you need to know about the amount of work which goes into its preparation.

It’s just a few chairs, you cry, how on earth can it take so long?

It is more than just a few chairs though, far more.

Indeed, planning for this year’s Three Choirs Festival began long before the Gloucester 2010 opening night had even happened.

In fact, it takes two years in total to arrange a festival, and the organisation and running of the 284th festival has fallen to a surprisingly small team of employees – four in total – and a far larger group of volunteers and King’s School pupils – all overseen by Debbie Liggins, the festival’s administrator and development manager.

“Without the students and volunteers the festival could not go ahead,” said Mrs Liggins, who controls almost every aspect of the festival from her office on College Green.

Which means she will be there on Monday morning, as the 900 “fixed”

chairs (this does not include those that are not “fixed”) arrive to be placed in the cathedral with the help of a forklift truck.

It’s not just chairs of course: the stage also needs to be put in (by the same company, luckily), all of which will take a week.

For the next week, the electrics are put in place which, this year, will include whatever is needed to create surround sound – a first for the festival.

Luckily, there are already electrics underneath College Green – which will act as a hub for festival goes – put in especially with the Three Choirs Festival in mind.

During that last week, the marquees needed to create the hub on the green will also need to be put up and all final checks will need to be done to make sure everything is absolutely perfect.

And these two weeks are just the finishing touches to months and months of planning.

First, Mrs Liggins and her team have to book the venues and the artists, who are, of course, vital to the success of the festival.

Then there is, of course, the slight issue of finding accommodation, feeding and looking after the 800 artists who will descend on Worcester for the week.

Not to mention producing the programme itself which, quite frankly, is not a programme but a book of some considerable size – 272 pages, to be exact – filled with profiles, song words and background information.

“All the venues have to be sorted by the March before, sponsors have to be in place,” said Mrs Liggins, before pointing out that the programme book was not produced as hardback for the general public, but copies were produced in hardback to preserve them for archive purposes as they are a historical reference.

Not to forget, the finished programme is actually the second incarnation – the original one is handed out a year in advance, when only some of the concerts have been arranged: 28 as opposed to the final 60.

The pamphlet – for that’s what it is – gives people a “taste” of what to expect from the festival, but is just as beautifully crafted as the book.

There are also numerous fundraising events to be organised because the Three Choirs is not a commercial venture, but a charity which has to raise £320,000 a year.

In fact the total cost for the weeklong festival will amount to about £750,000 and, even with the help of a small grant from the Arts Council (which comes to about seven per cent) and private donors and sponsors, as well as the sale of tickets and merchandise, it is considered a good year to simply cover the costs.

“It is a big logistical exercise,”

said Mrs Liggins.

“Big” is possibly understating it, which makes one wonder how and why Mrs Liggins tackles it each and every year.

“It is very exciting to be part of it – the festival tends to take on its own momentum,” she said.

The ticket office opens on College Green from Wednesday next week.

FIND OUT MORE AT 3CHOIRS.ORG

THREE CHOIRS HISTORY

The Three Choirs Festival dates back – officially – to 1715 and Worcester. Unofficially, it had been running for a few years longer.

The festival travels from Worcester to Hereford and Gloucester on a three-year rotation cycle.

It is the oldest surviving noncompetitive festival in the world.

It has run every summer since its inception, with breaks for the two world wars, but it has had to overcome certain hurdles along the way, including: Getting the cathedrals to agree to non-liturgical music Allowing men and women to sit together in the cathedrals The festival used to be financed by “stewards” – essentially local gentry – but by 1947 there were 900 such stewards, which was not conducive to making decisions. It was changed into a charity and now all that remains is the Three Choirs Festival Society which has no financial liability for the events.