What a wonderful accident. I bought a single ticket for the headline concert of the 2017 Oxford Chamber Music Festival to hear the internationally renowned percussionist Evelyn Glennie. She more than lived up to expectation, but I found something else for which I was not prepared. For me this concert turned out to be the tip of a phenomenal iceberg of the energetic musical creativity which is OCMF. Inclusive is not a strong enough word to describe the experience. Each ‘concert’ in the rest of the festival (I was hooked by then) had the same dynamic interaction of everyone involved: musicians, composers, performers, audience, organizers and more besides no doubt. Participative, inclusive, egalitarian, creative are words which only begin to hint at the experience. The week ended leaving me with a sense of satisfied musical exhaustion. Like everyone else who was there I had been given the privilege of being invited to share in the making of real music, not just as a punter or consumer or mere member of an audience, but as a participant in a week of sublime creativity. Thank you.