By Gillian Ellison

Last updated 16:00, Wednesday, 07 May 2008

IT’S that time of the year again – the 58th Whitehaven Musical Festival is almost upon us.

It is being held in Whitehaven Civic Hall from May 21 until May 24.

There will be four days of competition in music and speech.

This year’s adjudicators have both been before to the Whitehaven Festival.

The music adjudicator is Marilynne Davies and Marie Dixon is looking after the speech section.

The festival will start at 9.30am on Wednesday, May 21, and this first day will be devoted to poetry, verse speaking and Bible reading.

There is a new class for under 10s – Story Book Reading – for which a new trophy has been donated. And another new one is the Yvonne Chapman trophy for poetry (11 years and under) for poems written and performed by the competitor.

The music classes begin on Thursday afternoon with the popular children’s choirs. Throughout the rest of the festival, the sessions are varied and include brass bands and instrumental ensembles, piano classes, violin solos, vocal solos and duets.

There is also a new trophy and a new class – American Spirituals. The festival culminates on Saturday evening with the ever-popular Songs from the Shows, Gilbert and Sullivan and open vocal classes before the Rose Bowl final and presentation of awards.

A full listing of times and events can be found in the programme which is now on sale at the Civic Hall.