International Gilbert & Sullivan Festival

The International Gilbert & Sullivan Festival is known around the world for being the friendliest and happiest Festival there is. This unique celebration of Sir Arthur Sullivan’s glorious music and W.S. Gilbert’s razor-sharp wit should be on everyone’s “must see” list. The Festival celebrated its 25th year in 2018.

Gilbert & Sullivan is special. And it has that rare quality of lifting the spirits, putting a skip in the step and making life feel better! Visitors can see the very best Gilbert & Sullivan performed in the magnificent surroundings of Buxton Opera House.

There are also a variety of fringe events – morning talks and afternoon concerts take place each day – and the Festival Club will return in 2023. 

2026 Festival

The 32nd International Gilbert & Sullivan Festival will take place between  1 – 15 August 2026.

See the full programme on the IGSF website here.

Public booking is open. 

Book tickets via the Buxton Opera House Box Office – call 01298 72190 or book online on the BOH website here.

Last updated 13.03.2026

More About the Festival

The International Gilbert & Sullivan Festival was founded 1994 by Halifax businessman Ian Smith and son Neil and made a home in Buxton. In 2014, the main festival moved to Harrogate, North Yorkshire but with Buxton still hosting a week of the festival at the Buxton Opera House prior to this.

Sadly, Chairman and Creative Director, Ian Smith died in November 2019. His exceptional creativity and boundless enthusiasm for Gilbert & Sullivan built a unique and exceptional opera festival attracting thousands of visitors from around the world and from all corners of the United Kingdom.

Since, the Festival is run very much as a family affair with Ian’s wife, Janet, and sons Neil and Oliver continuing Ian’s vision to ensure that his beloved Gilbert & Sullivan continues to thrive. In 2023, the festival returned in its entirety to Buxton. 

The National Gilbert & Sullivan Opera Company is the Festival’s own opera company and performs in Buxton Opera House, The Royal Hall Harrogate and on tour around the UK.

Website: www.gsfestivals.org/
Email: info@gsfestivals.org
Phone: 01422 323252
Facebook: @gsfestivals.org
Twitter: @GSFestival

More about Gilbert & Sullivan

Gilbert & Sullivan remain the world’s most performed theatrical partnership.  Together they wrote fourteen comic operas between 1871 and 1896.  W S Gilbert, who wrote the words, created fanciful topsy-turvy worlds for the operas.  For nearly 150 years, lines and quotations from Gilbert’s witty pen have become a part of the English language, such as “short, sharp shock”, it’s love that makes the world go round!” and “let the punishment fit the crime”.   Sullivan’s genius for melody, and Gilbert’s magic with words produced a combination of music and text that has rarely been equalled.

Gilbert & Sullivan paved the way for musical theatre as we know it and their influence can be seen in just about every musical playing in the West End today.  And although it is easy to concentrate on Gilbert’s genius as a writer, his work as the first stage director must not be underestimated.  Gilbert realised just how important stage management was, and his attention to detail in this respect was a new development for the future of the theatre.

Producer Richard D’Oyly Carte brought Gilbert & Sullivan together and nurtured their collaboration.  He built the Savoy Theatre in 1881 to present their joint works which came to be know as the Savoy Operas and he founded the D’Oyly Carte Opera Company, which performed and promoted their works for over a century.

Henry Wood, writing in 1921 observed “We have two masters who are playing a concerto.  Neither is subordinate to the other; each gives what is original, but the two, while neither predominates, are in perfect correspondence.  This rare harmony of words and music is what makes these operas entirely unique.”