A Merseyside arts festival is eager to put local people centre-stage this year.
The 10-day Prescot Festival, now in its 18th year, invites sopranos, altos, tenors and basses from across the region to ‘Come and Sing’ highlights from perhaps the most popular choral work of all time—Handel’s Messiah, featuring the celebrated ‘Hallelujah Chorus.’ Ian Wells conducts and will be bringing along the junior, youth and community choirs of Liverpool Cathedral to entertain in the second half of the concert on 18 June.
For those who can’t hold a note but are yearning to put pen to paper, there’s an opportunity to enter the 2022 Prescot Festival Short Story Competition, with a £100 prize for the winner. This year’s theme is ‘Of kings and queens and royal realms,’ and entry is open to unpublished writers of any age in the Liverpool City Region (deadline 27 May).
The festival will be showcasing artwork online, too, and artists of all ages and abilities are encouraged to submit photos of their paintings, sculptures and other creations for a virtual Community Art Display.
Alternatively, anyone with energy to burn won’t want to miss folk band Two Left Feet, for a traditional family barn dance with caller (23 June).
‘Making arts and music as a community is at the very heart of the Prescot Festival, so we’ve been keen to give local people lots of opportunities to play an active role in this year’s event,’ said artistic director Dr Robert Howard.
Children from across the town will be contributing this year, too, with a schools’ art exhibition, the Primary Schools’ Choir Festival on 20 June and the well-established Young Instrumentalists of Prescot at on 21 June.
The 18th Annual Prescot Festival of Music and the Arts runs from Friday 17 to Sunday 26 June in the historic Lancashire town of Prescot, Merseyside. The full schedule is now online at prescotfestival.co.uk, and event tickets are on sale via the website (booking fee applies) or in person (cash only) at Poco Coffee at 30 Eccleston Street, L34 5QJ.
ENDS
Photo: Come & Sing event at the 2019 Prescot Festival with James Luxton (Credit Alan Humphreys)
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