Festival showcases Liverpool's best talent

Liverpool welcomed over 4,000 performers from across the North West to take part in its annual Performing Arts Festival.

The Festival, held at St. Georges Hall, is now in its 86th year and has seen a high range of talent in music, dance, speech and drama.

Councillor Warren Bradley, Leader of Liverpool City Council, said: “In many ways this festival has helped shape the city's cultural pedigree over the decades. Its longevity and popularity perfectly illustrates a unique and important characteristic in this city's cultural fabric - participation - and is quite rightly treasured."

Performers showcase their talents in front of an audience and a panel of adjudicators, which mark the performance and decide whether they win a medal or go through to the finals. Past festival winners include local celebrities Claire Sweeney and X-Factor finalist, Ray Quinn.

Acting group, Yula Group 4, gained silver medals for their performances in the group acting category. They said: “We really enjoyed it up there and we are very proud of our silver medals.”

The music and dance festival began at the beginning of March
and the speech and drama festival started on the 15th March.
This years festival winners included, Melissa Jones, who won
Junior Speech and Drama Student of the Year, Sorin Whittile,
who won Pianist of the Year and Kieron Connor Valentine, who
won Voice of the Year.

Ann Warr, who began working for the BBC at the age of nine
and has been involved in drama and poetry for most of her life,
was one of the speech and drama adjudicators. She said: “We
have had a wonderful time this morning. It is great to see so
many young people from across the city coming together to
celebrate drama.”

Danielle Flint, 13, added: “It’s been really fun and I’m pleased to be here and have won a medal.”