It’s 20 years since Gavin Henderson helmed his last Brighton Festival but as he returns to take part in festivities once more, it’s clear some things never change.

The trademark bow tie – adopted during his school days in honour of his racing driver hero Mike Hawthorn and still “very much” present – is perhaps a given. More impressive is his undimmed enthusiasm for his home town.

Although it’s some time since he’s lived in Brighton, his Kemp Town home being in serious need of repair, he never stays away long.

This, after all, is the man dubbed “Mr Brighton” for his commitment to the city.

Although best known for his tenure as artistic director of Brighton Festival – which in 1984 he effectively saved from folding with a grant of £17,000 and a good dose of tenacity – Henderson’s involvement in city life is manifold.

A musician, artist, writer and educator, he has been chairman of The Regency Society and of Brighton Youth Orchestra (where he first played trumpet as a boy), a governor of the University of Brighton and a keen champion of the West Pier Trust.

All rather impressive before one even gets to the rest of his CV, which includes stints as principal of Trinity College of Music in Greenwich, chairman of the National Foundation for Youth Music, president of the European Festivals Association and his current role as principal of London’s Central School of Speech and Drama.

At 66, he’s surely due a rest sometime soon. But the idea of retirement is anathema to someone like Henderson.

And besides, he doesn’t see what he does as work.

“There’s absolutely no division between what I do for work and what I do for pleasure. I can’t imagine a life when one doesn’t go to a performance every other night. If I go away for a break, I’ll go to a festival.”

Naturally, his time with Brighton Festival was not wasted. In the ten years he was there, he laid the groundwork that took it from what was “fundamentally a classical music festival”

to the multi-disciplinary showcase it is today.

When he joined the festival it was being administrated from a concert agency office in London. Henderson was responsible for bringing the operation into Brighton, eventually setting up an office in what is now tapas bar La Bodega, opposite the Corn Exchange on Church Street.

He was also responsible for launching the Children’s Parade that now marks the official opening of the Festival each May. At that time, the Festival had a theme every year and in 1985, it was Commedia Dell’Arte. Henderson thought it might be fun to hold a circusthemed procession through the city and local school children were enlisted to join in.

“It’s lovely to see how it’s taken root and kept growing since then. It’s wonderful to see how far the whole Festival has come. I think Brighton’s commitment is remarkable.”

It was Andrew Comben, CEO of Brighton Dome and Festival, who noted the 20-year anniversary of Henderson’s departure and invited him to take part in the 2014 programme. Henderson initially proposed a series of events inspired by the West Pier, which in its heyday was “the most wonderful kind of arts centre”. This was scaled down somewhat but he’s still thrilled to be interviewing his old friend and world-renowned classical composer Harrison “Harry” Birtwhistle, whose Down By The Greenwood Side premiered at the West Pier Pavilion on May 8, 1969.

“Even then he was being marked out as a great talent,”

notes Henderson, who was working as “a gopher” on the piece. He recalls one late and rather tense rehearsal that was interrupted by two noisy old men chatting at the back of the auditorium. Birtwhistle’s response was not a polite one.

“It turned out to be Laurence Olivier and William Walton,”

he says with a laugh.

In addition to the conversational event, there is a performance of Birtwhistle’s Orpheus Britannicus later that evening, and beforehand special outdoor performances of Gavin’s Antiphonies, written for Henderson by his friend, and set to be performed by Brighton Youth Orchestra.

But as Henderson is reunited with Brighton Festival, he will also bid farewell to St Bartholomew’s Church, marking his retirement as its resident trumpeter with a concert on May 14 as part of Brighton Fringe.

St Bart’s gave him his first experience as a professional musician when he was invited to perform at the Christmas Day service in 1962. “During the sermon the organist came round with a little envelope of 15 shillings, which was quite a lot of money at that time. It was the first time I’d ever been paid for playing the trumpet and I was rather touched. I played again that Easter and I’ve never missed an Easter since but the time has come to call it a day. It’s bloody hard work playing the trumpet!”

He has more than enough to keep him busy with his role at Central which, like many higher education establishments, is experiencing its share of strikes and student actions.

While wary of sounding too supportive, it’s certainly true to say Henderson is sympathetic to the situation. As a pupil at Brighton College it was “suggested he didn’t remain”when he declared himself an atheist, pacifist and Communist all in the same day, and resigned from the then-obligatory Combined Cadet Force. Although he eventually brokered a deal with the headmaster (the bow tie was his concession to demands he wore a tie), he remains something of a rebel at heart.

“I remember helping to man the barricades at Hornsea College of Art in the protests of 1968 so what’s happening now is fairly mild compared with what we were up to and I fully understand where students are coming from. I think I was probably the only university principal who went on anticuts marches with students.”

He feels it’s “quite right” the students should question the status quo – art being a process of challenging. The same can be said for festivals.

“The art of running a festival is knowing what the public wants before they know they want it and a good festival lays out a stall of stuff people don’t know about, some of which will be quite challenging.

Luckily, Brighton has proven time and again that it has an appetite for the new.”

* For full details of the Harrison Birtwhistle events, visit brightonfestival.org.

* Farewell The Trumpet takes place at St Bartholomew’s Church on May 14. Visit brightonfringe.org for full details