Virtually King’s Week

The end of the Summer Term at The King’s School, Canterbury heralds King’s Week, a unique festival of music, drama, art, and recreation that has been held every year since 1952. Over one hundred events in a variety of attractive locations ranging from jazz to dance, from classical music to a variety of plays, and from lectures to recitals provide a glorious conclusion to the academic year.

The founding principles of King’s Week have always been to offer pupils the opportunities to perform, create, and present in a safe environment in front of an enormous audience. Despite the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, this year was no different. It may not have been King’s Week in its normal guise, but it was Virtually King’s Week!

Twenty-two live events, and over 60 in total made up the two day event at the beginning of July.

Audiences were treated to a diverse show from the comfort of their homes which included a number of the usual staple events of King’s Week such as Jazz on a Summer Sunset, music from the Symphony Orchestra, short pieces from the Drama department, online science experiments from Lab on the Web, the King’s Week band covering Dire Straits and some beautiful artwork from all year groups throughout the School.

Highlights from the two days were surely the spellbinding performance of Spem in Alium, by Tallis by members of the talented school choir and the delightful talk by former pupil Michael Morpurgo and his wife Clare about his time at King’s and their charity Farms for City Children. Michael also treated viewers to readings from some of his as yet unpublished works.

Several of the events, including Michael’s talk, are available to view on the King’s School website here – Virtually King’s Week