YORK’S Festival of Remembrance is being staged again at the Theatre Royal, after organisers realised there was no chance of returning this year to its traditional home, the Barbican.

The event will take place at 7pm on Sunday, November 7, and once again features the Heavy Cavalry and Cambrai Band as its main attraction.

The festival moved from the Barbican to the Grand Opera House in 2008 because the then Barbican operators, Absolute Leisure, were intending to carry out a refurbishment of the leisure centre.

The firm’s contract with City of York Council was then terminated last year after it missed several deadlines.

Festival organiser Ted Griffiths warned that, with the Barbican and the Grand Opera House also unavailable for the autumn, the event might have to be cancelled.

After subsequently receiving many inquiries from people wanting the event to go ahead, he decided to stage the festival at the Theatre Royal, which became its third venue in as many years.

The event featured the York Philharmonic Male Voice Choir, York Festival Ladies and soloist Janina Sweetenham, after starting with the entrance of representatives of the Army, Navy, Air Force and nursing services.

Mr Griffiths, the president of the Royal British Legion’s York branch, said today that audited accounts had now shown the festival had made a profit of £7,000, which had been sent to the headquarters of the Poppy Appeal.

He said this was about £3,000 less than was traditionally raised at the larger Barbican arena, but still a good sum, and it took the total amount collected since the festival started to about £107,000.

He said tickets for this year’s festival, the 20th since it was revived after a lapse of 37 years, would be available later in the year.

The council, which is looking to find a viable future for the Barbican, said last month it was assessing plans put forward by six prospective developers.