The vision for the Festival came from Budleigh residents Roger and Brenda Bowen, whose inspiration to create Festivals in Budleigh Salterton caught the imagination of local people. In 2005 the Budleigh Salterton Festival of the Arts was launched. The title reflected their aim to include a variety of art forms – from art exhibitions to jazz concerts, drama, but especially classical music. Roger and Brenda’s achievement in establishing the Festival is significant as it took great energy, strength of character and foresight to set up such an operation on sound foundations.