Music to the ears
A youth music festival has grown so much it has had to extend into a fifth day.
This year's Oswestry Youth Music Festival has attracted a record breaking 450 contestants, with more schools taking part and extra competitions launched.
Competitions will include music from Baroque to songs from the shows with instruments from the drums to the church organ.
The event is held each year around St David's Day and this year runs from February 28 to March 4.
Competition and performances are held in three venues, Christchurch, Holy Trinity and the Methodist Church, all within the town centre.
The finals and winners' concert will be held at 2 pm on March 4 in Christchurch.
Chairman, Councillor Paul Milner, congratulated Sue Turner, event organiser, for continuing to make the Festival a huge success.
"The number of school taking part has increased considerably and it is particularly good to see so many entries from Oswestry's Marches School," he said.
"As the Festival has been growing each year, we are now introducing an extra day so that we can fit all the classes in."
Mrs Turner said that several new classes had been introduced for 2018. These included classes for musical theatre ensemble, church organ, drum kit with backing track, and a baroque piano solo.
"Thank you once again to Oswestry Town Council for supporting this event. We are delighted that our festival continues to grow where others are closing down, and the wealth of musical talent in our young people is truly amazing.
"For our Finals Competition we are delighted to welcome back Daniel Chandler, who has delivered excellent adjudicating in the past. Another familiar face on the adjudicating panel will be Stephen Roberts, who is the current chair of the British and International Federation of Festivals. There will be two other adjudicators who are new to our Festival - Sally Lane and Angela Rowley - and we look forward to meeting them."
The festival has been donated several new trophies this year, the Hi Hat Trophy for Drum Kit with Backing Track from William Oram, the Stans Superstore Trophy for Instrumental Duet 18 and the Stan’s Superstore Vocal Award and the FixAuto Award, the Reanimator Trophy from Eddie Edwards and the Christine and Mervyn Hughes Awards for Musical Theatre Ensemble Classes.
Everyone can watch the various performances for free and programmes are available at the Guildhall reception for £1.
