CLASSICAL, brass and bluegrass are just some of the different styles from world class performers which visitors to this year’s Ribble Valley Music Festival can look forward to.

The first series of events at the festival which runs from spring through to the autumn at various venues around the Ribble Valley has been revealed.

The event gets underway on Friday, March 3 when Christ Church, Chatburn, hosts the award-winning Championship Section Wingates Band, currently ranked in the top 30 brass bands in the world.

The following month, attention turns to the St Mary’s Centre in Clitheroe when tenor and platinum selling recording artist Jon Christos and the award winning celebrated West End and Broadway star Adam Lacey join forces for a special show.

The pair will be taking to the stage on Saturday, April 8 when they will perform songs from hit musicals and popular classical numbers.

The festival continues to bring artists and music styles rarely performed in the Ribble Valley. A new innovation for 2017 will see a day-long Country and Bluegrass Jamboree on Saturday, April 22 at various venues in Chatburn.

Details of who will be performing will be revealed shortly but expect some leading names from the UK country and bluegrass scene.

A landmark occasion promises to be a performance in Downham on Sunday, June 18 by the Stonebridge String Quartet of the Forest of Bowland Suite which captures the beauty of the area in musical form.

They will be joined by Preston Opera Company which will delight opera fans around the area.

Last year one of the festival highlights proved to be Encore Opera Group’s performance in Downham. The good news is that they are back for this year’s festival when they visit the historic setting of Whalley Abbey on Friday, July 7

The festival, run entirely by volunteers, raises funds for the churches where the various events are held during the year and has received praise from The Queen for being unique as a festival with these fund raising objectives.

Clive Greenwood, chairman of Ribble Valley Music Festival said: “We are living in very turbulent times and this gives us even deeper reasons to spread positive energy, and to express some gratitude toward all the good that happens to us every day.

“The strong support and high attendance of the audience who come to our festival from far and wide and the enthusiasm of existing church teams, and from new venues in Clitheroe and Slaidburn inspires us to continue fund raising through creating innovative events with music to bring people together throughout 2017.”

More festival events are currently being arranged and details of these plus information on how to get tickets for individual events will be revealed in the coming weeks.

“Many events sold out last year,” said Clive. “We wanted to release details of the first events so that people can put them in their diaries.”