Audiences are preparing for Handel, Bach and big band sounds as the opening weekend of the 2022 Prescot Festival approaches.
After a hybrid online/offline programme in 2021, the 18th Annual Prescot Festival of Music & the Arts will present its first fully live programme since 2019, beginning on Friday 17 June with a return visit from festival favourites Dr Jazz and the Cheshire Cats.
After a swinging start, Day 2 continues with the 100-strong Prescot Festival Chorus, a ‘Come & Sing’ choir that has been gathering since 2007. Their performance of highlights from Handel’s Messiah—including the much-loved ‘Hallelujah Chorus’—is followed by Liverpool Cathedral’s resident community choirs: Liverpool Cathedral Junior Choir, Gilbert Scott Singers (youth choir) and Liverpool64.
On Sunday, Liverpool Bach Collective will sing the music of JS Bach in the majestic surrounds of Prescot’s 17th-century parish church, providing a traditional service of Evensong, followed by Cantata 30: Rejoice, redeemed flock.
The festival then continues through to Sunday 26 June, ending with a finale featuring Phoenix Concert Orchestra, after a 10-day programme that includes film, school choirs, brass band, historian Ken Pye, a barn dance with live ceilidh band and more.
‘We’re confident this year’s festival, on the cusp of the opening of the Shakespeare North Playhouse, will provide the most fitting and thrilling fanfare possible for this new era in Prescot’s cultural life,’ said artistic director Dr Robert Howard, ‘and with so much local musical and artistic talent on show, it’s a great opportunity to showcase Knowsley in its year as the Liverpool City Region’s Borough of Culture.’
The 18th Annual Prescot Festival of Music & the Arts takes place from Friday 17 to Sunday 26 June 2022 in the historic Lancashire town of Prescot, Merseyside. The full schedule is online at prescotfestival.co.uk, and tickets are on sale via the website or in person (cash only) from Poco Bar & Cafe at 30 Eccleston Street, Prescot, L34 5QJ.
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