Festival Photographer

Please note that photography and recordings of any nature are not permitted within the Festival Halls, except for authorised photographers and members of the press.
Throughout the week, reporters and photographers from the Cumberland News/News & Star will come in; they will be wearing badges and they will have made their presence known to the responsible Committee Member/Main Steward.

The Festival also has its own official photographer. Alan Sawyer will photograph as many of the performances as is practicable throughout the week, and the photographs will be available to give proud parents and relatives a record of their child’s participation in the festival. Details about how to obtain the photos will be published on this website and on our Facebook page.

Message from our Photographer

My name is Alan Sawyer and I am the official photographer for the Festival.  My aim is to photograph as many of the participants as possible during the week but, as there are 2 venues being used most of the time, I won’t be able to photograph everyone.  I try to be as unobtrusive as possible, so as not to distract competititors and I shoot with a silent shutter in quiet classes.

If you, or a child you are bringing to the Festival, do not wish to be photographed, please let me or a steward know before the class, or afterwards if necessary.

Please remember that photography by anyone else at the Festival, other than accredited newspaper photographers, is strictly forbidden.

If your child wins a trophy or place certificate when I'm not in the room, but you would still like a photo, feel free to come and find me in the other venue between classes or sessions. But please take care not to disturb on-going classes when you do so.  And please be patient if I’m busy.

Photographs will be available on the Festival Flickr site at: www.flickr.com/photos/carlisle_mdf/albums which is organised by daily am, pm and evening sessions. 

Photos from previous years are at:

As I will be photographing for up to 12 hours a day on most days, and may have upwards of 6000 photos to select and process, it may take me a week or 3 to complete the task.

Downloading a Photo

I post all photos under a Creative Commons licence, so they are free for you to download for non-commercial use.

  • On a desktop computer or laptop: Click on the relevant session album; scroll through to the photo you want and click on it. Just below the photo on the right will be a download arrow, clicking which will give you a choice of sizes.  I'd recommend selecting 'Original', which will be the largest file and printable easily up to A4 size.
  • On a phone or tablet you will need to select 'Desktop Site' in your browser to get the download arrow.  Then proceed as above.
  • If you're on the Flickr app you're probably already familiar but in case not: Click through to the relevant album, then to the individual photo. Tapping the photo should bring up the title and a few symbols below the photo. Tap on the share symbol and near the top of the list you'll see 'Save'.  Tapping that will give you the chance to select the 'Original' large file.

Finally, if you have any requests for changes to a photo for a special purpose - background objects, crop, colours etc - or would like a larger file than the one on Flickr for an extra large print, for example, please email me at carlislefestival@yahoo.com.