Aldeburgh Festival Aldeburgh Festival The Aldeburgh Festival of Music and the Arts is an English arts festival devoted mainly to classical music. It takes place each June in the Aldeburgh area of Suffolk, centred on Snape Maltings Concert Hall. The Festival was founded in 1948 by the composer Benjamin Britten, the singer Peter Pears and the librettist/producer Eric Crozier. Their work with the English Opera Group (which they had founded with designer John Piper in 1947) frequently took them away from home, and it was while they were on tour in Switzerland with "Albert Herring" and "The Rape of Lucretia" in August
Aldeburgh Music year until it outgrew the available venues in the town. When redundant malting buildings in Snape became available in 1965, an initial 25-year lease was taken on the largest of the Victorian malthouses, and it was converted by Arup Associates (architects and engineers) and Wm. C. Reade (builders) into Snape Maltings Concert Hall. The 820-seat Hall was opened by HM The Queen on 2 June 1967. From that date, the main events of the annual Festival were re-located to Snape. A major fire in 1969 led to the re-development of the site, re-opening the following year, and gradually what was