Leeds Castle preparing for one of their biggest events of the year

We go behind the scenes as the stage is being set.

Transcript

00:00The stage is set, well almost, for this year's Leeds Castle concert. Under the famous backdrop

00:08of the grounds in Maidstone, expect a host of classical music and four new solo acts

00:13this weekend. The weather may not be on side right now, but a few rain dances up on stage

00:20should help, so the team are busy setting up.

00:23It's a large open air classical concert. We have a Spitfire flying over halfway through.

00:29We have fireworks, we have cannon, we have about 8 or 9 thousand people on the banks

00:34behind you, and a bit of patriotism as well. Land of Hope and Glory, Royal Britannia, last

00:39night at the proms.

00:40You can see behind you, we're on day three now, we started on Monday morning. It takes

00:44about five days to get everything together, so hopefully by 8am on Saturday morning we're

00:50kind of ready, so we've got a few hours just to make things look pretty. But we've been

00:54doing this for a few years now, it's a fairly tried and tested formula, so five days to

00:58build everything, one day to do the concert, and then two days to take everything down.

01:02Perhaps a well-oiled machine to put together, but how important is this event for the local

01:08community and economy?

01:10It's wonderful to be back. I think this is our third year back since Covid, and it's

01:15just an extraordinary event. I mean, there really is nothing quite like live music, and

01:19especially having it in a setting like that, Leeds Castle, it's so magnificent, and I know

01:24the orchestra always enjoy it. And it's such a great community event as well. We have families

01:30there, we have all kinds of generations, and we really try very hard to do a programme

01:35that caters across generations and for everybody who turns up.

01:40And that includes some fresh faces.

01:43We've got four fabulous performers from the world of opera. We have Jesus Leon and Laura

01:49Martins who will be giving us some operatic highlights in the first half, and then in

01:53the second half, we have Alicia Paul Moses, who's currently starring in Tina the Musical.

01:59She's playing the lead role in Tina in the West End. And Sandy Grigelis, touring the

02:04country with Tim Rice. So we've got some wonderful world-class soloists, both from opera and

02:09from musical theatre, and obviously we've got pieces in the programme to bring out their

02:14strengths.

02:15With this event being built on the foundations of British culture and heritage, a bit of

02:20wet weather shouldn't deter Kent's classical concert community.

02:24Abbey Hook for KMTV, Leeds Castle.