ORGANISERS of Highbridge Festival of Arts say they are deep in preparations as the festival is set to celebrate its 70th year. 

The festival will be running across two venues from March 6 to March 18 with thousands expected to attend a variety of music and performance events. 

Maureen Phillips, former secretary and co-organiser of the festival said: "We are very excited to be celebrating the 70th anniversary of the festival this year. 

"When it first started the festival was really small, a local headmaster started it in 1948 and it has carried on since then and has got bigger and bigger. 

"Last year we had more than 2,300 entries from across the South West and beyond and we have a lot of great performers scheduled for this year."

Maureen says the festival has grown massively over the last few years and said the event aims to encourage young people to showcase their talents.

The festival is for people of all ages and costs £2 per day to enter. 

Performances throughout the festival will be at The Princess Theatre and Arts Centre and Highbridge Community Hall. 

Speech and Drama performances will be on March 6 and 7, dance performances will be from March 8 to March 12 and music performances will be from March 13 to March 18. 

Adult music sessions will be held at St John's Church in Highbridge on March 18. 

Maureen added: "Performances at the festival will be performing arts and music and that only.

"We have professional adjudicators coming in from across the UK who are experts in their fields to judge the performances so the children competing get a real sense of competition and even get some advice from industry experts. 

"This year we also will be giving out gold, silver and bronze medals to the participants so they can feel a real sense of competition and achievement after the performances have finished.

"We are over subscribed for dance already so we urge people to come along and be an audience to some amazing young performers."