THE Elizabethan setting of Harvington Hall will be home to music and dancing for the 31st Harvington Festival.

The festival takes place next weekend from Friday, July 5 to Sunday, July 7, and will feature The Roach Quartet and the Grand Union Syncopators.

The festival was started by a small group of parishioners of St Mary’s Church, in Harvington.

The Roach Quartet will appear in the Great Chamber of the hall next Friday. Flautist Heather Roach and viola player Ruth Woolley are both recent graduates of the Birmingham Conservatoire and have teamed up with experienced internationally recognised artists David Strange on violin and cellist Philip Handy.

The quartet will be playing a selection of music by Beethoven, Mozart, Ravel and other composers.

Moira Hobbs, chairman of the Harvington Festival Committee, said: “I am very excited that we have been able to book the Roach Quartet as they are building a strong reputation for the quality of their performances.

“It is good to be able to bring emerging artists to the Wyre Forest area. Many years ago we had soprano Emma Kirkby with Anthony Rooley at the festival before they became international stars.

“To celebrate our 30th anniversary last year, they returned to play at a sell-out concert."

Next Saturday, The Grand Union Syncopators will be performing a two-hour programme of traditional jazz classics in the gardens of the hall.

Although only recently formed, five of the six members have played together for nearly 50 years as The Zenith Hot Stompers and played to a packed audience at Harvington in 2009.

Audience members can bring their own picnic to the jazz concert.

Next Sunday, there will be a sung festival mass at 10.30am in St Mary's Church and Elizabethan music and dancing in the hall gardens from noon.