Orchestras, organists, jazz bands and jivers will all migrate to Knowsley in June when the Prescot Festival enters its second year.
The event - officially titled the Second Annual Prescot Festival of Music and the Arts - will feature musicians, artists and performers from all over the region.
Newcomers this year include the Liverpool Phoenix Orchestra, organist Professor Ian Tracey, jazz quartet Hot Club of Knotty Ash and the Haydock Male Voice Choir.
The 4-day extravaganza will get off to a riproaring start with the Haydock-based Valley Brass Band on Thursday 22 June, starting at 7.30pm at Prescot Parish Church.
Evening concerts will be followed by a packed late-night fringe programme to include a screening of the 1936 Hitchcock classic The 39 Steps and two toe-tapping jazz nights featuring the Northern All Stars Dance Orchestra among others.
Prescot's artistic legacy will be celebrated with an exhibition dedicated to the creative talents of the late Stuart Sutcliffe (pictured), ex-Grammar School boy, artist and one-time bassist for The Beatles. Visitors will also be able to view a stunning array of paintings by the Prescotia Watercolours group.
The Prescot Festival was founded last year by local music teacher and composer Dr Robert Howard.
"We want to bring the arts to as wide an audience as possible," Robert told us. "Prescot has such a long and glorious artistic and cultural heritage - and it's about time we celebrated it."
The Festival will end in grand fashion with a Proms-style finale on the Sunday night by Professor Ian Tracey, Director of Music at Liverpool Cathedral, and also Patron of the Festival.
- The Prescot Festival runs from Thursday 22nd to Sunday 25th June 2006. Full details are at the Arts in Prescot website.
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