MORE than 50 people attended a meeting to launch the ambitious grassroots festival to celebrate the founding of a Winchester monastery where Alfred the Great was buried.
Hyde900 is scheduled for 2010 to mark the 900th anniversary of the foundation of Hyde Abbey, the burial place of England's greatest king, his wife and son.
The meeting on Saturday heard an ambitious programme that will celebrate history, art, music, the environment and sport.
The festival will open in early May 2010 with a large-scale medieval pageant, King Alfred's Last Journey', which will trace the route followed by his disinterred coffin in 1110 from the cathedral to Hyde Abbey Garden.
Also planned is an oral history project to capture the memories of local residents, young and old.
A concert by local up-and-coming bands will be held at River Park.
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