although “triennial” means something that happens every three years, the next festival did not happen until 1874. in 1880 the first festival called the leeds triennial festival was conducted by arthur sullivan. these festivals were very famous internationally because a lot of famous composers were asked to write new works for choir and to come and conduct them. composers such as raff, dvorak, massenet, humperdinck, parry, stanford, elgar and sullivan himself all wrote new works for the festival.