YOUNG performers are gearing up for the 84th year of the Bournemouth Music Competitions Festival.

The performing arts extravaganza, which begins on Saturday June 2, has taken place every year, apart from during the Second World War, since 1927 when 7,000 competitors from all over the country competed in music, elocution and folk dancing.

Since then the competition, the brainchild of the late Sir Dan Godfrey, founder conductor of the Bournemouth Municipal (now Symphony) Orchestra, has expanded to include all types of dance, singing and instrumental classes.

There is also poetry, prose, Shakespeare, religious text reading, television news, radio, public speaking, dramatic improvisation and even mime.

Festival organiser Kevin Knight said this year saw the introduction, for the first time, of more commercial dance, with hip hop classes.

He added: “We also have a fantastic adjudicator, Chris Hocking, who is a very famous West End choreographer.

“We offer fantastic quality adjudicators, a fantastic stage and facilities and it’s somewhere to come to meet fellow competitors to see how they can improve, and what they can attain.

“They use each other to learn and grow from.”

The first week of the festival concentrates on dance, with classes taking place at the Bishop of Winchester Academy, followed over the next two weeks by music, speech and drama classes at the Bournemouth Natural Science Society in Christchurch Road and at the Pavilion Theatre in Bournemouth.

The competition reaches its conclusion three weeks after it begins with a spectacular Festival Concert at the Pavilion on Saturday June 23.

Both day and season tickets are available for anyone wishing to watch the various classes.

Further details are available on bmcf.info, by emailing bmthfestival@aol.com.