Festival chief ‘numb’ as grand piano dropped

ORGANISERS of a classical music festival said yesterday they are distraught after a £45,000 grand piano was dropped off the delivery lorry.

Fundraisers for the Two Moors Festival saved for two years to raise the cash needed to buy the Bösendorfer piano, which they say is considered the Rolls-Royce of pianos.

The festival’s artistic director Penny Adie, said she was so excited that the instrument was being delivered that she ran out to take pictures but was left “numb” as she recorded it crashing to the ground.

“We were just so shocked,” the 53-year-old said. “I just felt numb.

“It is a tragedy to see something of such beauty lying on the ground, it was like seeing a priceless painting torn to shreds.”

The Two Moors Festival was set up in 2001 in the wake of the foot and mouth crisis to bring tourists back to Dartmoor and Exmoor and now up to 5,000 people attend concerts at rural churches in Devon and Somerset.

Last year, the Countess of Wessex agreed to be patron of the festival, which runs a series of classical music events for 10 days in October.

Ms Adie, who said the piano was being delivered to Barkham Gallery, Sandyway, in the Exmoor National Park, does not yet know the full extent of the damage but fears it may be a write-off.

“We don’t know what it will be like inside,” she said.

“We need an instrument that will be required to do a lot of work and be played by some of the best musicians.”