IT is indeed good news (Malvern Gazette, July 25) that a revival of the Shaw Festival may be added to the forthcoming arts presentations already planned for Malvern.

Malvern Concert Club is just about to start its centenary season and early indications are that audiences will be bigger than for many years.

This will then be closely followed by the English Symphony Orches-tra's Elgar Festival. It is important that these events, plus Autumn in Malvern, Chandos, the Festival Chorus etc. as well as Malvern Theatre's and the ESO's regular seasons, are seen not as rivals but as complimentary events within a total picture.

Perhaps the most important point is that, through all these organisations, Malvern has indeed a level of arts activity that many a much larger centre of population would rightly envy. We may indeed be said to have a non-stop, year-round festival - enhanced of course by a fine major venue and a supportive local press!

It is this total picture, rather than any single initiative that should justify our claim to be a European 'Centre of Excellence and Culture' for the Arts.

Ernie Kay, (Hon. assistant secretary, Elgar Society, West Midlands), Graham Road, Malvern.