This year’s Darley Park concert was so different from 2019 for obvious reasons – but everyone involved in #darley20 worked so hard to bring as much of the spirit of this special event to the public as possible given the restrictions faced.  

There’s nothing like a live audience, but the sense of community that Andy Twigge and I witnessed from the BBC Radio Derby studio was a true inspiration.  The level of engagement via social media, Facebook, and text messages as they flooded into us was very moving – it reinforced what an important part Darley Park concerts play in Derby’s cultural life and how keen people were to get involved in spite of the circumstances.

Being involved was a thrill - it was fantastic to see the orchestra recording some new arrangements after such a long time of not being able to play together – so we could relive last year’s spectacular performance and also bring something new to our audience.  They showed us how much they appreciated the effort to maintain the Darley Park tradition – so many mentioned how they have a family tradition of attending the concerts, and how grateful they were that they’d been given the opportunity to keep that up! 

It was such a worthwhile endeavour, it was fabulous to revisit last year’s concert and to feel again the warmth of an audience through their messages and calls, and it was so important to the artists to feel that their continued involvement is so hugely valued.  Thank you!