Isle of Man Festival of Choirs returns after Covid hiatus

A total of four local teams and 13 visiting groups will perform at the Villa Marina

The return of a music festival after a four-year break is "very exciting", organisers have said.

The Isle of Man Festival of Choirs was last held in 2019 before being twice delayed by the Covid-19 pandemic.

The event, at the Villa Marina from 13 to 15 October, will feature 17 choirs from the island and the UK.

Festival co-ordinator Gary Corkill said he was "very encouraged" that groups were keen to travel to perform again.

He said the "serious yet friendly musical competition", which begins with a welcome event later, would feature a wide range of styles, including gospel, pop, spiritual and medieval.

It will see choristers feature in four classes, with the winners of each class competing for the overall festival trophy.

'Wonderful'

Blackburn Peoples Choir, the overall winners in 2015, and the other mixed choir entrants will be the first to perform on Saturday, with male groups from the Isle of Man, Gloucestershire and Derbyshire following them on the stage at the Royal Hall.

Mr Corkill said the female groups will follow in the afternoon, with the class due to see an "excellent standard" of competition with "stiff opposition" from local choir Manx Voices.

The Manchester-based Glasshouse Bootleg community choir will then make their competition debut alongside the other entrants in the final round of the day, the open class.

They will go up against the Emmanu'-EL Apostolic Gospel Academy Choir, who secured first place in the class in 2019 and were recently crowned BBC Songs of Praise Gospel Choir of the Year.

Mr Corkill said the Sunday finale of the competition had been moved forward to the morning due to disruption to flights and ferries to and from the island, but he was hopeful people would still turn out for the "wonderful" final.

He added that the singers in the final always went and enjoyed themselves "and we hope the audience do too".

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