Preparations for a week-long music festival that showcases the finest performing arts talents of youngsters in North Lincolnshire are well underway.

The Scunthorpe Music Festival, which runs from Monday, February 27 to Saturday, March 3, will kick-start with performances in speech and drama.

And it will be the first week of a three-week long cultural festival.

Youngsters will be performing for the music festival at Frodingham Parish Hall each day except Thursday, when the choral speaking will be held at The House on Brumby Wood Lane.

The final session will take place at ftc Academy (Foxhills Technology College) on Saturday, March 3 at 4.30pm.

Festival secretary Jane Holmes said: "We have had more than 700 entries this year, with three new schools taking part – Scunthorpe's Willoughby Road Primary School, Scawby Primary and Park Hill School in Doncaster.

"A variety of classes have been entered, so our classes have had to be divided due to the large number of entries received. We look forward to a busy week.

"Our adjudicator is Mary Ann Tear who is nice and it's her first visit to Scunthorpe."

Ms Tear is a freelance performing arts specialist, an examiner for Trinity Guildhall and a British Federation adjudicator. She is based in Singapore as a performing arts and communication skills consultant and continues to train, teach and examine.

Mrs Holmes said: "Members of the public may attend the event for a small admission fee, where they may see the next rising star."

Festival chairwoman, Rosemary Cranidge, added: "The committee and I hope all the performers enjoy taking part. It is wonderful to see so many young people speaking out, appreciating literature and gaining in confidence.

"We are proud to have three full weeks of festivals at Scunthorpe Music Festival, for dance, music, and speech and drama. In total we have about 40 volunteers and without them our festival would not be able to run in such a friendly, efficient way.

"Despite costs continuing to rise, we have tried to keep our prices as low as possible."

Admission: morning and afternoon (adults £1.50 /concessions £1), evening (adults £1.75/concessions £1.25), Thursday per session at The House (adults £1.50/concessions £1), final at ftc Academy (adults £3/concessions £2.50).

A special report featuring photographs and results will be published in the Scunthorpe Telegraph on Thursday, March 1.

After this week-long festival, the next series of festival dates are as follows:

Dance at Plowright Theatre – Sunday, April 3 to Saturday, April 14.

Music at Frodingham Parish Hall and The House from Monday, May 21 to Saturday, May 26.