THE 10-day Prescot Festival of Music and the Arts will open on Friday with the ever-popular Fairey Brass Band.

There will also be “come-&-sing” performance of excerpts from Handel’s Messiah and a concert by Dr Jazz & the Cheshire Cats.

Modern chamber music, songs from the shows, contemporary acoustic music and classic films are also on this year’s programme at various venues.

A highlight of the Festival will be the world premiere of a new piece of classical music commissioned by Norman Williams for the Prescot Festival from local composer Kevin George Brown.

The Prescot Festival of Music and the Arts was founded by composer, musician and teacher Dr Robert Howard, in 2005, to celebrate Prescot’s rich historical and cultural heritage.

“It was exciting to be supporting Liverpool as Capital of Culture last year,” says Dr Howard, festival artistic director.

“But it didn’t just stop there. We keep arts and culture alive in Prescot with this annual festival and it keeps getting better.”

This fifth Annual Prescot Festival of Music and the Arts runs from this Friday until Sunday, June 28.

The opening concert with the Fairey Band and Haydock Male Voice Choir is on Friday at 7.30pm, at Prescot Parish Church, Church Street, Prescot; tickets £7.

FOR more details, go to www.prescotfestival.co.uk