Festival opens to showcase musical talents

Rochdale music service is encouraging all local groups, individual performers and schools to join in with the popular festival of performing arts and celebrate the thriving cultural scenes that exist across the borough.

The festival, which is now in its 57th year, regularly features more than 6,000 performers and celebrates all aspects of performing arts including music, dance and drama.

It runs daily throughout February and March and is open to anyone who wishes to showcase their talents; regardless of experience, ability, or age. Closing dates for performance entries is Sunday 29 December 2019.

With 27 different categories to enter, from dance, percussion, folk music, drama and spoken word, there are opportunities for everyone to get involved. Each section has multiple classes to enter depending on the length of performance or age of performers.

Councillor Kieran Heakin, cabinet member for children’s services, said: “The festival is always a fantastic showcase and highlights the many talents we have in our borough. It’s a wonderful opportunity to perform in a magnificent setting as part of a well-established festival so I hope to see more people than ever get involved this year.”

The majority of classes are competitive, but there is the option to enter each class non-competitively, just for fun and to express your talents. All entrants will also get professional feedback from the adjudicators.

 

 

The festival also includes the Festival Concert on Friday 21 February, which is performed by the Rochdale Youth Wind Band and the Lancashire Artillery in the magnificent surroundings of Rochdale’s world famous town hall.

The town hall will also play host to ‘Music for Youth’ on Friday 6 and Saturday 7 March. This regional festival is part of a nationwide series of festivals that celebrates young musical talent.

A celebration concert will be held on Thursday 21 May to showcase some of the best performances from the festival entries and 55 trophies and awards will be given out to those performers who delivered stand-out performances or achieved the highest scores across the whole festival.

All information regarding the festival, and tickets to the shows, can be found on the festival website:

• rochdale.gov.uk/festivalofperformingarts