PREPARATIONS are under way for the 87th Bournemouth Music Competitions Festival due to be held from May to July next year.

Organisers are keen to attract as many entries as possible and have urged dancers, singers, musicians and speech and drama enthusiasts to register to receive the syllabus when it is published in the New Year.

For the first time, instrumental classes will be held at All Saints Church in Castlemain Avenue, Southbourne while the dance festival will take place at Bishop of Winchester Academy, choirs and bands at the Pavilion and vocals, speech and drama at Bournemouth Natural Science Society.

History was made at last year’s festival when 10-year-old Rosie Gill became the youngest person in the competition’s history to scoop the Minns Young Musician of the Year prize.

The Bournemouth Music Competitions Festival was first held in the Winter Gardens in 1927 and attracted more than 700 people from all over the country to take part in music, elocution and folk dancing competitions.

There was a gap of several years during the Second World War but since 1945 it has grown and developed and is now run by a hard-working and enthusiastic team of volunteers.

Anyone who would like to receive a syllabus should email bmthfestival@gmail.com or call Kevin Knight on 01202 556023. More information is available at bmcf.info Dance classes will open the programme on May 25 with the festival concert closing the proceedings at the Pavilion on July 4.