HE Bermuda Festival for the Performing Arts is to continue a school outreach programme initiated last year to raise cultural awareness among the island's youth.

Regarded as a huge success by Festival organisers and school teachers, the pilot programme exposed more than 1,000 students to performances especially selected for their age group and to meet their interests.

"In the past we've always tried to somehow get some children in to (see) the Festival performances," said Karen Pollard, the Festival's artistic administrator. "Last year, for the first time, we had a proper, structured programme.

"We were able to offer events during the school day so that teachers could bring the children to the venue and either watch the performance or participate in a workshop or something like that.

"The feedback was very positive. We had some very nice thank-you letters from the teachers and, perhaps even more importantly, (we learned) a lot listening to the children as they came out. They really enjoyed themselves."

As the Festival celebrates its 30th anniversary, Mrs. Pollard said it was the organisation's hope to duplicate that initial triumph with the students. "It was a huge success last year. We had very positive feedback from the teachers who brought the children and lots of children came ? I think there were over 1,000 ? and we're hoping to do the same again."

Since 1976, the Bermuda Festival has offered a diverse range of artistic disciplines as a means of increasing residents' cultural awareness and entertaining locals and visitors from overseas. The school outreach programme is an extension of that philosophy and will see students treated to performances by four artists of international repute ? Alonzo King's LINES Ballet, juggler Michael Moschen, the Moscow Chamber Orchestra, and the dance company, MOMIX.

"What we've done is prepared a package for each of the schools," explained Mrs. Pollard. "In that package is an introductory letter, a list of the events which are happening and application forms for each event.

"I spent (an entire day) driving from one end of the island to the other, delivering the packages to the schools and tried, where I could, to explain to the person in charge how (an event) was best suited to a particular age group. Most of the teachers recognised me from last year and they were very positive about it, so that was good.

"We're trying to encourage parents to take their children. Obviously that would be the most exciting thing of all to see ? families coming to the Festival as a unit; parents bringing their children. But unfortunately that doesn't happen in all cases and so what this programme is trying to do is to reach those children who otherwise wouldn't be brought to the Festival.

"That's why we think it's good to have a teacher decide which group is most appropriate and bring them all along during the school day. It makes it an exciting proposition for them and, hopefully, we're reaching out to children who will benefit from it and might even take it somewhere in their lives."

Mandy Oatley Wells, a music teacher at Francis Patton Primary, concurred: "The school outreach programme is fantastic," she said. "There is no better way to motivate and inspire the imagination of a child than through live performance.

"The outreach programme is particularly designed for students within a certain age range and take place during the school day, so I can ensure that all of my students attend. For music educators, this has to be one of Bermuda's best resources."

offer this year, however, are a range of artistic interests. As pointed out by Mrs. Pollard, the aim is truly to meet as wide a scope as possible.

"We've got a juggler, Michael Moschen, who we decided would be most suitable for the upper primary school level ? the same for MOMIX. And then we have the Moscow Chamber Orchestra doing another one presentation.

"They requested that nobody younger than ten attend the event. Although the children will actually just be watching one of the rehearsals, I think it will be very interesting for (them). They'll see how the conductor puts the orchestra and the soloist together.

"I'm sure at some point he'll stop and say, 'No. Wait a moment. You're coming in at the right moment, but it's too loud or it's too whatever.' I think it'll be a very interesting thing for the children to see. One tends to take music for granted; to assume an orchestra just goes onstage and plays, but the conductor ? although he just appears to be waving his stick in front of it ? has actually programmed the whole thing. He's like the teacher of a class getting the final result. And that's what the children will see happen."

is not free, Mrs. Pollard said. The cost, however, is far cheaper than it would be for students who attend independently of the outreach programme ? $5 versus the usual $20.

"Some of the artists charge a very big fee for doing the outreach programme and we can't always meet that," she explained. "Some of them we negotiate (additional performances) within the initial contract but if it comes as something extra then it can be very expensive.

"But the reason we (charge a fee) I suppose, is to help the children to understand that everything is not handed to them on a plate. That this carries a little bit of weight, that it is something special and if you want to attend you've got to be prepared to pay a little bit of money.

"It's a rare opportunity to see something live on the island and we just want to make them understand it is something extra special."

However, at the end of the day, the programme could not be a success without the co-operation of teachers and the assistance of volunteers ? Mrs. Pollard praised both groups for their efforts.

"(The programme) does result in a lot of extra work for the Festival," she said. "There's all the co-ordination of the events with the teachers. They have to come in (to the Festival office), pick up the tickets and pay for them.

"It's also quite time consuming from our point of view. We have to make sure that the venue's available. We have to have people there ? all our volunteers who support us during the evenings have to be available in the daytime as well so that we can operate these things.

"We have to have ushers. We have to have the technical people. So it is extra work for us but we feel it is very worthwhile because we feel we're fostering, possibly, a new audience.

"The young students of today will one day hopefully become our audience members, benefactors and supporters, and maybe even performers ? all of which will ensure that the cultural life of Bermuda continues to thrive.

"So (the teachers and our volunteers) are very important to us. We are very grateful to (everyone) for giving the extra time to make the outreach programme possible."

q General tickets to the 2005 Bermuda Festival for the Performing Arts are still available and may be purchased online at www.bermudafestival.com or ? as of Monday ? from the Festival box office, located near the ferry terminal on Front Street.