Register Your Carillon Recital

Help BellFest create a canopy of sound from coast to coast on New Year’s Day by giving a carillon recital for your community. We’re bringing neighborhoods together and celebrating the art of bell ringing in all its forms. This year, with social distancing keeping change ringers and handbell choirs apart, the focus will be on you, carillonneurs! Here's all you have to do:

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Coordinate the logistics to access and use your local tower and instrument. Play your instrument on Jan. 1, 2021, at a time that overlaps our nationwide bell ringing. Spread the word and ring in the New Year with the National Bell Festival!

What BellFest will do for you:

Event Page
Your concert will be included on our website and event calendar as an official National Bell Festival activity in your city. This web page (which you’ll be able to review and approve) will include helpful information for festivalgoers, including performance details, maps and directions, your bio or profile, and more!

Check out this concert from our 2020 New Year's Day festival, when over 400 people came out to hear the carillon bells at the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception in Washington, D.C.

Program
No concert is complete without a program. We’ll produce a slick digital program that can be printed locally to pass out to your audience. This will also be available for download from your dedicated event page. Included will be a complete listing of songs or melodies along with your bio.

Warm-up Station
We’ll work with you to identify and secure a local business, hotel, or restaurant to be the official warm-up station for your performance. Your audience will be able to stop by this location for a complimentary cup of coffee or cocoa to take the chill out of the New Year.

Four warm-up stations were dotted around Washington, D.C. for our first festival - a big hit for festivalgoers who needed a little pick-me-up on the brisk New Year's Day.

Publicity
We have a dedicated team of public relations and marketing professionals who are working hard to spread the word about our festival – and that includes you! We’ll help drum-up publicity ahead of the recital to attract both carillon fans and new listeners alike. We’ll also design a poster that you can share with local businesses, churches, or universities.

Audience Engagement
By registering attendees ahead of time for free on your event page, we’ll be able to engage your audience, build excitement ahead of the event, and send reminders. This way, your audience will be more inclined to spread the word to their friends, share the event online, and follow along with you on social media. 

Volunteer Management
Depending on how fancy you’d like your event to be, you might need a couple volunteers on hand to pass out programs, answer questions, or direct festivalgoers to the nearest warm-up station. We’ll have all the collateral and registration forms ready for you to solicit and manage these volunteers.

Let's get started.

Join us as bell towers across the nation ring in the New Year like never before. Complete this brief form and a member of the BellFest team will reach out to discuss your participation.