THE first Presteigne Festival took place in September 1983, founded by composer and pianist Adrian Williams, whose 60th birthday is celebrated at this year's festival.

"It was actually to do with my uncle," says Adrian, explaining how that first festival came about. "He was very interested in funding a summer school in the Borders, an area I'd grown to love, but he died suddenly without having made any provision for the school, and I had already made plans to move here after leaving my residency at Charterhouse. That left me without any income, so as soon as I arrived I started teaching piano like crazy which kept me in baked beans."

By this time the idea of a school had been replaced by the idea of a festival, and Adrian had made contact with musicians Gareth and Lynden Rees-Roberts and others who together formed a substantial committee. Fundraising began in earnest, most notably with the performance by Adrian Fish and Dawn Pye of Erik Satie's Vexations, which attracted worldwide press attention. "It raised lots of awareness, if not money," says Adrian.

The first festival, he reveals, secured a guarantee against loss of £500 from South East Wales Arts and in the event had no need of it. "The festival was a huge success and made £1,000. We had classical music, folk music and all kinds of things, including a new work by me," he recalls, adding that he felt that a festival should really be a festival, packed with a wide array of events.

The fund raising events led to the formation of Mid Border Community Arts Association, which as Mid Border Arts continues to run an eclectic year-round programme of events in the town.

For the next 10 years Adrian was the festival's artistic director, a decade that culminated with a project suggested by Simon Mundy. "The Open Borders project commissioned composers from each of the (at the time) 12 EC countries and they came over to perform. It was a real feather in the festival's cap." Adrian's last festival proved a huge success with Zulu rock group Shikisha raising the roof and percussionist Evelyn Glennie also on the programme.

The festival under George Vass's direction aims to encourage new music and in particular young composers - "George has been a stalwart and I think that's why it's still alive today."

While Adrian admires the direction in which the festival has moved and the success it continues to enjoy: "I have often regretted quite keenly that I had given it up, but I was at a point where I needed change, and I moved to London, but it wasn't the right place."

The magnetic attraction of the borders exerted itself again and Adrian returned, only to leave again for Japan in 1999 before finding himself in Hereford again in 2003. "All these years I've been nudging my back back to the borders, and now I'm in an absolutely gorgeous place. I'm currently working on a new piano trio for the Fidelio Trio, which has been taking shape over the last few days. You have to get into the sound world and to do that you need a good environment. I've found it here."

Adrian is delighted to still be involved in Presteigne Festival, of which he is vice-president, and thrilled that a piece he considers among his best is to be performed at Old Radnor Church on the afternoon of august 28. "The Ways of Going is a cantata based on the poetry of Alun Lewis. It was originally commissioned by Peter Florence for Hay Festival and the central part of this huge piece is a complete setting of Lewis's On Embarkation."

The festival will also feature the premiere of a new commission, a work for clarinet, violin and cello to be performed on August 29 by Alexandra Wood, violin, Rozenn Le Trionnaire, clarinet and Alice Neary on cello.

Presteigne Festival runs from August 25-30. To book, visit presteignefestival.com. The box office is now open for telephone bookings 01544 267 800, Mon-Sat 11am to 2pm.