THE historic Bournemouth Music Competitions Festival will return in October after coronavirus restrictions led to its cancellation in 2020.

Last year was the first year the festival had not taken place since the end of the Second World War.

Although the event is usually held in May and June, organisers have put it back to October for this year only to improve its chances of going ahead.

The music, speech and drama festival will be held at the Freemasons Hall in Boscombe between October 1 and 10 and the dance festival will take place at Queen Elizabeth School in Wimborne from October 23 to 30.

Anyone wishing to find out details or enter can see the syllabus for each event at the festival's website. The instrumental syllabus is currently being finalised.

Organisers also hope to combine the event with the Rotary Young Musician of the Year event which was also affected by the coronavirus pandemic last year.

But the festival's event for choirs and its concert at the end of the event will have to wait until next year.

The choir event has been held for a year because they have been unable to rehearse.

A spokesman for the festival said: "Why not take a look at the classes available and think about entering? The annual Rotary Young Musician competition was also dealt a severe Covid blow in 2020 so we are hoping to be able to combine their instrumental events with ours in 2021.

"As soon as these arrangements are finalised they will be published on our website so keep looking. Unfortunately due to the current situation with choirs not having been able to meet up to rehearse, sadly there will be no choir festival at the Pavilion this year nor will there be a concert at the end of our festival.

"However, we are hopeful that things will be back to normal in 2022 as we know how much our choir days are enjoyed."

More details are available at bmcf.info and anyone who wants more information can email bmthfestival@gmail.com or call 07952 176797.