The recent Prescot Festival is celebrating yet another roaringly successful showcase of musical and artistic talent, seeing the finest weather ever in its 22-year history.
Founded in 2005, the 10-day cultural showcase on Merseyside continues to thrive and expand, with combined audiences of 1,800 people. An even larger number (estimated at around 5,000) basked in the intense heat at Prescot Carnival, an affiliated event during the Festival week, organised by Prescot Town Council.
Brass favourites Clock Face Miners Heritage Brass Band, light classical music from South Liverpool Orchestra, and musical theatre sensations Birkenhead Operatic Society Trust (BOST) were among the acts on this year’s programme. Over 80 singers from across the region formed the ‘Prescot Festival Chorus’, giving a fine rendition of 80-year-old John Rutter’s Magnificat. The Choral Spectacular evening concluded with a thrilling second Festival performance from 8-piece local a capella group Hope Street Consort. Jazz returned to the Festival in a terrific concert given by St. Helens-based group Easy Street Big Band.
The 2026 programme saw further Festival collaborations with Prescot’s Shakespeare North Playhouse. Prescot’s own professional opera singers Laura Hudson and Sonny Fielding dazzled in a programme of afternoon opera solos and duets inspired by the Bard of Stratford-Upon-Avon, in the delightful sunshine of the Sir Ken Dodd Performance Garden. Meanwhile, in the venue’s studio theatre, Lee Clotworthy’s brilliantly witty play ‘Out the Woodwork’ had audiences laughing in the aisles in two sell-out performances. Other church-based venues played host to Liverpool Bach Collective in Choral Evensong, Metropolitan Cathedral Organist Richard Lea in recital, primary school choirs and instrumentalists, a classic film night (the documentary Road to Letter to Brezhnev), a barn dance with live band ‘Two Left Feet’ (!), and a talk from the ever-popular local historian Ken Pye.
“Many of our acts this year were return visitors, and they excelled themselves in the sheer quality of their performances,” said Artistic Director Dr Robert Howard. “It was also a delight to welcome so many new faces, not only on stage, but among our audiences, and in the formidable team of volunteers and organisers, too – it’s impossible to overestimate their role in ensuring a community festival on this scale runs so smoothly.”
Preparations are already underway for the 23rd Annual Prescot Festival of Music & the Arts, set to take place from Friday 18th to Sunday 27th June 2027. Eager audiences can keep up to date with Arts in Prescot’s year-round programme of events at prescotfestival.co.uk
ENDS
Photo: The Hope Street Consort at the 2026 Prescot Festival (credit: Alan Humphreys Photography)
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