Recent experience of music festival at sea?

[galeforce9]

Hello - what could we expect? Thanks 🎼

[nomadgirluk]

Are you referring to P & O specifically, or music themed cruises in general?

[galeforce9]

p&o

[lindyloo22]

Do think P&O do music festivals 

[Dinglebert]

2 hours ago, lindyloo22 said:

Do think P&O do music festivals 

RCI do them.  They have some of the top west end musical stars around September for 4 day cruises.

[lindyloo22]

Sorry it should have said do not think p&o do festivals

[Denarius]

Not recent, but in the 1990s I attended a classical music festival on Cunard (Vistafjord) which featured a New York chamber orchestra. Concerts were performed daily in one of the lounges. More recently, I was on a P&O ship in the Caribbean docked next to a Holland America ship which was featuring a blues festival. An excellent band was playing on the open deck. I believe that they also offer country music cruises.

[Hols4]

Hols4

We are on Aurora in October to the Canaries and that cruise is a Music Festival at sea cruise. It says it is mainly classical music with music quizzes and lectures by radio and tv personalities.

[Ataraxia]

We were on one a few years ago - Henry Kelly was on the cruise with loads of other classical type people. There were quite a few events during the cruise, but I only went to one quiz - only because it was in the bar I wanted to drink in.

[zoe sproodle]

20 hours ago, Dinglebert said:

RCI do them.  They have some of the top west end musical stars around September for 4 day cruises.

They're not RCI cruises as such but an RCI ship chartered by a company called Floating Festivals. We did an 80s one last year with the Human League and OMD on board amongst others. It was very good. The next sailing was the west-end themed one you mentioned.

[Tablelamp]

P and o used to do wonderful classical music festivals, all well attended.  Sad to say they don’t do them anymore.

[joro44]

OH! OH! Tablelamp you are giving a false fact! There is a MFAS on the Aurora, sailing from Soton 20th October to the Canaries, the compère will be the first voice heard on Classic FM, Nick Bailey. MFAS was suggested by PO’s then chairman, Lord Stirling and he asked BBC’s Richard Baker to front the programme. These have continued over the years, up to five in a year, latterly on Oriana, Adonia, and Aurora. There seems to be a reluctance on the part of PO to commit to continue the series, as PO strives to attract a customer base to fill the new, large, Carnival type ships. I suspect that this will be a hard task in the off-season, unless they reduce fares and thus the standard.

Edited August 3, 2019 by joro44
Spelling correction.

[galeforce9]

1 hour ago, joro44 said:

OH! OH! Tablelamp you are giving a false fact! There is a MFAS on the Aurora, sailing from Soton 20th October to the Canaries, the compère will be the first voice heard on Classic FM, Nick Bailey. MFAS was suggested by PO’s then chairman, Lord Stirling and he asked BBC’s Richard Baker to front the programme. These have continued over the years, up to five in a year, latterly on Oriana, Adonia, and Aurora. There seems to be a reluctance on the part of PO to commit to continue the series, as PO strives to attract a customer base to fill the new, large, Carnival type ships. I suspect that this will be a hard task in the off-season, unless they reduce fares and thus the standard.

Thanks joro.  I find it strange that so many other people want to tell me they don’t do these on p&o!  I clearly wouldn’t have asked the question if there wasnt one on the schedule 😱

Edited August 3, 2019 by galeforce9

[joro44]

To give you an idea of the artists that are on a MFAS, the following gives an indication of those planned to be on Aurora R920. 

Nick Bailey (Host), a soprano, mezzo/Director of Trial by Jury, pianist, violinist, flutist, Spanish guitarist, tenor, baritone. The Aurora Chorus will take part in the Trial by Jury production. Usually there are a couple of programme items each sea day, with one on port days. Running in parallel is a ‘normal’ PO entertainment programme. Hope this answers your initial enquiry.