KEYBOARDCHAT.COM The Feature Section of KEYBOARDNEWS.COM The Internet Magazine For Organ-Keyboard Enthusiasts ****************** A Look Back In Time The First Week-long Festival As another Pontin's Pakefield organ-keyboard festival draws to an end, we look back in time to when the first Pontin's Prestatyn festival took place in 1981. Roy Neal was invited along by producer Cled Griffin as a journalist and author of 'The Magic of the Organ'. In May 1985 Roy asked Cled to help him to produce the first Caister Keyboard Cavalcade Festival. Below are pages from the programme of the first week-long event when around 2,000 enthusiasts enjoyed a host of star players and over thirty brands of electronic organs. Some of the players mentioned below are sadly no longer with us - just leaving us with a fading memory of seven days of music in a happy atmosphere. The above pages have been reduced in size with a lower resolution for quick loading, which explains the loss of quality. The Caister and Pontin's Blackpool festivals continued under the wing of Grant Neal (Roy's son) after his sudden death in 1990. After twenty years of festivals at Caister the Norfolk event moved to Pontin's Pakefield in 2006. Organ-Keyboard Cavalcade festivals are now Britain's longest running week-long residential events and are kept popular by the large number of players appearing at them. Related Links on this website History of Barton Hall The venue of the first Pontin's Festival How the Festivals Started Are they getting fragmented? Direct Link: Keyboard Cavalcade Festivals Back to the Front Page Back to Keyboardchat Contents Page 15.9.07