City of London Festival
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The City of London Festival is an annual arts festival that takes place in the City of London, England, over two to three weeks in June and July. The Festival is strongly geared towards classical music, but also offers a programme that includes jazz, world music, opera, film screenings, lectures and guided tours. Performances are usually held within local venues including some of London's ornate churches, St Paul's Cathedral and Livery Company Halls.
Many events are free with the aim being to make the arts accessible to a larger proportion of the City's population. These are often held outdoors in the City's streets, squares and gardens. These venues include the Guildhall Yard, Liverpool Street Station and Finsbury Circus Gardens. Another part of the programme of the Festival is educational; primary and secondary schools from around the City are involved in a variety of culturally enriching projects which are then showcased within the main Festival programme.
The City of London Corporation provides the main support for the festival and as a result of its close ties to major businesses within the Square Mile many companies have become involved in sponsoring and supporting the festival since its inception in 1962.
Recent Festivals have looked at London's links with important international trading centres. 2005 saw a Dutch theme, 2006 highlighted Japanese culture and 2007 showed the City's connections to France's trading centres, whilst also exploring the 200th Anniversary of the parliamentary Abolition of the slave trade in the United Kingdom.
In 2004 a free winter concert series was established which now runs annually with performances from mid-January until late March.
