JUST like Doctor Who, Dorset’s oldest music festival has regenerated into the county’s newest and is looking forward to an exciting future.

For more than 30 years, a music festival took place in Milton Abbey School, but, this year, a new festival was launched at the venue – so the original moved to Bryanston School near Blandford and has been renamed The Wessex Music Festival.

It runs from Friday to Monday and takes place in St Martin’s Church and the Edith Evans Room at Bryanston School, with external performances in St Nicholas Church, Durweston and The Charlton Inn at Charlton Marshall.

Festival chairman David Everett said: “The changes in the festival are very exciting.

“Milton Abbey was a wonderful place, but it was time for a change and being at Bryanston, which is near to Blandford and a larger population centre, will make a huge difference to us.

“It is also a bigger campus and there are some very interesting and beautiful rooms for performances and we are looking to explore all the possibilities in the future.”

The festival programme has a varied programme of music, from sacred songs to jazz/folk and a celebration of the centenary of Benjamin Britten. Performers include the celebrated tenors Mark Milhofer and Gareth Jones, alto Kate Chapman, horn soloist Miles Hewitt, Rosanna Goodall on saxophone and clarinet and the Wessex Chamber Orchestra. The classical musicians are performing in the Bryanston venues and St Nicholas Church, while you can catch young jazz/folk group Instant Karma rounding off the festival at the Charlton Inn on August 19.

As well as concerts, the festival is also featuring five church services including candlelit compline and choral evensong.

Among the highlights will be Made in Britain, a celebration of British composers and Britten’s centenary and the premiere performance of Song of the Wild Otter, a piece composed by David Everett with words by Dorset poet Paul Hyland.

David said: “I wrote it when I was a student with words by TS Eliot, and I planned to premiere it at this festival but the publishers Faber wouldn’t let me.

“I thought we were doomed and was talking to Paul Hyland, who I know, and he took up the challenge and wrote Song of the Wild Otter, inspired by the otters he has seen in the river near Blandford. It is a local piece and his words matched the rhythm. It is a beautiful text. There is a lot to look forward to and we are already planning for the future of the festival.

“I want to do a concert in St Andrew’s Church in Winterborne Thomson, which is a beautiful, ancient church in the middle of a field. I think that will be amazing.”

For full details, visit thewessexfestival .co.uk, call the box office on 01258 454331 or email info@thewessexfestival.co.uk