long-standing
musical tradition; Bath Abbey is home to the Klais Organ and is the largest
concert venue in the city, with about 20 concerts and 26 organ recitals each
year. Another important concert venue is the Forum, a 1,700-seat art deco
building which originated as a cinema. The city holds the Bath International
Music Festival and Mozartfest every year. Other festivals include the annual
Bath Literature Festival (and its counterpart for children), the Bath Film
Festival, the Bath Fringe Festival, the Bath Beer Festival and the Bath Chilli
Festival, as well as the Bach Festivals which occur at two and a half-year
intervals. An annual competition for the Bard of Bath aims to find Bath's best
poet, singer or storyteller. The Bard uses the title to develop artistic
projects in the area and leads evening bardic walks around the city. The title
resurrects an Iron-Age Celtic Druid tradition where Druids were the law-makers,
judges and ceremonial leaders, Ovates were mediums, healers and prophets and
Bards were poets, musicians and history-keepers. All of them held high status and
a place in mystical/religious circles.
The city is home to the Victoria Art
Gallery, the Museum of East Asian Art, and Holburne Museum of Art, numerous
commercial art galleries and antique shops, as well as numerous museums, among
them Bath Postal Museum, the Fashion Museum, the Jane Austen Centre, the
Herschel Museum of Astronomy and the Roman Baths. The Bath Royal Literary and
Scientific Institution, now in Queen Square, and founded in 1824 on the base of
a 1777 Society for the encouragement of Agriculture, Planting, Manufactures,
Commerce and the Fine Arts, has an important collection and holds a programme
of talks and discussions.Food
Bath is linked to a variety of foods that
are distinctive in their association with the city. The Sally Lunn buns (a type
of
