Volunteers and performers are busily preparing for the opening weekend of this year’s Prescot Festival, a 10-day feast of arts and music in the historic Lancashire town of Prescot, Merseyside.
Proceedings open this year with the wonderful Wingates Brass Band, who took the Festival by storm last year, returning to Prescot on Friday 20 June. Audiences are looking forward to their celebratory programme in the town’s Grade I-listed Parish Church, with Festival birthday cake being served in the interval!
On Saturday 21 June, the Festival host the all-new show ‘A Night at the Musicals’, starring local professional vocalists Annamarie Newton and David Lee. Their line-up promises a cornucopia of hit songs from classic Hollywood, Broadway, and West End productions, at Prescot Methodist Centre. The afternoon of Sunday 22 June sees Prescot’s annual Carnival extravaganza being held at the town’s Brown’s Field. Meanwhile, later that evening, the professional baroque ensemble Liverpool Bach Collective conclude their own season of monthly tours to Merseyside churches, with a free performance of a Bach Cantata, as part of an act of worship in the Parish Church.
Events continue throughout the following week, with schools’ choral and instrumental concerts, a film screening of Whiston-born Willy Russell’s endearing classic ‘Our Day Out’, afternoon opera and an evening play premiere at Prescot’s iconic Shakespeare North Playhouse, as well as a community barn dance. Then follows a closing weekend featuring Lymm-based band ‘Dr Jazz & the Cheshire Cats’, a talk from local historian Ken Pye, a concert of choral classics including Mozart’s famous Requiem, and a special finale as Liverpool’s Phoenix Concert Orchestra celebrate their own 25th anniversary.
‘The joy of community music-making has sustained us through many challenges over the years,’ said Artistic Director Dr Robert Howard, ‘and it’s with both awe and gratitude that we anticipate this year’s anniversary 21st festival. As ever, we’re indebted to the time, skills and talents of an array of artists and volunteers for helping us deliver another festival that is both accessible and affordable to everyone.’
The 21st Annual Prescot Festival of Music & the Arts runs from Friday 20 to Sunday 29 June. Find out more, including dates, times, venues and how to buy tickets, at prescotfestival.co.uk.
ENDS
Photo: Much merriment at the barn dance as part of the 20th Annual Prescot Festival of Music & the Arts (credit: Alan Humphreys Photography)
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