Maria worked with the team at The Rothschild Foundation/National Trust manor, in creative visioning, concept development and programming for their new Summer festival, called Feast, in 2015, inspired by Baron Ferdinand de Rothschild’s historic annual ‘treat’ to local communities. The annual festival continues in 2019 with Maria’s ongoing involvement on the creative programme, building on her experience in outdoor arts.

‘Feast on food, arts and Waddesdon – a banquet for the senses. A special happening that delights, surprises, entertains and gives pleasure, resonating with a house, its story and landscape, all built for pleasure. All touch points are transformed for Feast. The spirit is one in which we, the hosts, have invited the visitor to the house and gardens for the day.’

The programme in 2019 included a high wire performance from The Bullzini Family directly in front of the Manor, the sculptural hairdressing of Osadia, Mr Wilson’s Second Liners, Artemis, Artizani, Matt Pang, Circ Rum Ba Ba, Thingumajig Theatre, Pif-Paf and Matthew Harrison’s Actual Reality Arcade.

The images below feature brilliant performers at the first Feast event: Artizani’s Lobster à la Carte and Curious Cargo’s The Lost Luggage Porters.

”I originally approached Maria Bota to help Waddesdon develop an idea for a new weekend of public programming, and I asked Maria specially because of the quality of the programme she created for the Salisbury International Festival.

With Maria’s guidance, we created the vision for the new Feast weekend at Waddesdon. Maria built strong relationships with our senior team, identifying how the artistic programme could be specifically relevant to elements of Waddesdon’s heritage and physical landscape. We wanted to achieve the 'festival feel' across Waddesdon, something that I felt had never been fully explored, and to ensure that Feast would be an experience for everyone. We asked Maria to create a programme that exemplified Waddesdon at its best, and drawing on themes of hospitality, entertainment and learning.

Maria was able to articulate the vision for Feast in such a way that she gave the senior team confidence in making a significant financial investment in the programming and content. Her expertise and personal knowledge of the artists ensured that we would hit the ground running in year one with a programme that delivered our aspirations, and which would surprise and entertain up to 12,000 visitors.

Covid disruption, budget cuts and a change of internal direction have sadly meant that Summer Fest is currently paused, but I do hope that we can work with Maria again in the future. Maria is a well-liked and trusted leader, who has really helped Waddesdon to achieve something extraordinary over the five years of our weekend festival.

Simon WalesChief Executive, Waddesdon Manor, project lead for Feast and Summer Fest