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Midland Drops ROH for Younger Image

Date: 20 November 1997

Midland Bank announced this week that it's stopping its funding of the Royal Opera and sister company the Royal Ballet, which it has supported since 1971. It claims the ROH is too �elitist , old-fashioned and inaccessible for the Bank's new image. Instead, Midland will spend �1m launching its own rock music festival to attract a younger, mass market. The Paul Hamlyn Foundation has also withdrawn its sponsorship of the Royal Opera. The defections will bring further financial worries to the ROH which has been on the brink of insolvency twice already this year.

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