A FESTIVAL choir is tuning up for a concert of light entertainment as part of a flower festival in a market town.

Bedale Festival Choir will perform during St. Gregory’s Flower Festival, in the town, on Saturday, May 2, at 7.30pm, in the church.

Included in the concert is the Allegro from the Handel Organ Concerto; the cuckoo and the nightingale, played as a duet on organ and harpsichord.

A spokesman for the choir said: “This is an interesting and beautiful interpretation of a classic piece of Handel – well known to organ enthusiasts.”

The choir’s musical director, Richard D Boyton, will be giving his rendition of the three organ grinder songs from Elgar’s Starlight Express.

For those who are unfamiliar with this work, Elgar wrote this, the largest of works for the stage, in 1915.

It is a children’s Christmas fantasy play, based on a novel by Algernon Blackwood.

The music and songs form a bridge between the worlds of adult reality and childhood imagination.

The play’s presenter is a “Sprite” in the guise of an organ-grinder, who sings these songs in front of curtains before each of the three acts.

This programme also includes appropriate light and entertaining music to compliment the flower arrangements on display.

The theme for the Flower Festival is “stories from childhood”.

The displays will be on view as follows: Friday: Preview evening, between 7pm and 9pm. Tickets £6 including canapes and programme; Saturday: Flower festival, between 10am and 5pm. Choir concert from 7.30pm. Tickets cost £7.50, including canapes and wine; Sunday: Flower festival, 11am to 4pm. Songs of Praise, 6.30pm.

During the weekend, there will be a craft show in the Chantry Hall and refreshments will be served.

For more information, call 01677-422091.