The Worcester Festival, when it started in 1858, was a convention of the same sort, with 'lectures upon the voice; the different styles of church music, ancient and modern; the philosophy of scales, harmony, etc., with singing by the whole class and by select voices; solos by members of the convention and ladies and gentlemen from abroad.' But the promoters of the project--Edward Hamilton and Benjamin F. Baker--hoped that at no distant day it might be possible 'to achieve the performance of the oratorios and other grand works of Handel, Haydn, Mozart, Beethoven.' This purpose has been gradually achieved as the educational features of the festival have been dropped. Carl Zerrahn was chief conductor of the festival from 1866 to 1897 and was assisted at various times by W. O. Perkins, George F. Root, Dudley Buck, Victor Herbert, Franz Kneisel, and others. His successors have been George W. Chadwick, Wallace Goodrich, and Arthur Mees, in the order named. The next festival of importance was the May festival of Cincinnati, started by Theodore Thomas in 1873. Thomas had a peculiar penchant for festivals. Quite probably they were of some value in stirring up interest in choral singing throughout the West. The prospect of going to the city every two years and participating in a big musical jamboree undoubtedly had the effect of stimulating choral societies in the smaller towns. Since 1873 the Cincinnati May Festival has been held regularly under the conductorship of Dr. Otto Singer, Arthur Mees, Frank Van der Stucken, and others. For several years, starting in 1881, the city also held annual opera festivals. To follow the spread of the festival epidemic from coast to coast would be impossible. Nearly every city and town in the country has at one time or other been infected. With some of them it has become chronic. Boston had it for a time. New York and Chicago later caught it from Theodore Thomas, but recovered quickly. We may also mention the peace jubilees of Patrick Sarsfield Gilmore, which were a particularly virulent form of the trouble. In Maine there have been regular festivals for eighteen years, with centres in Bangor and Portland. They are very big and well-conducted affairs, with a mammoth chorus, a large orchestra and soloists of international reputation. Similar in type are the South Atlantic States musical festivals held at Birmingham and Spartansburg for the last twenty years. Chicago has had a North Shore Festival Association for six seasons. Then there are the festivals of the North American Sängerbund, the North Eastern Sängerbund, and the innumerable Männergesangvereine all over the country; the Youngstown Music Festival, the Albany Music Festival, the festival of the Buffalo Musical Association and the Wednesday Club of Richmond, the Hampden County Festival, and the Kansas Farmers' Easter Festival; festivals in Los Angeles, Seattle, and Bellingham on the coast--a perfectly bewildering array of festivals.