THE 73rd Herefordshire Festival for Music, Dance, Speech and Drama closed on Saturday when a concert featuring the highlights of the week saw local performers joined by competitors who had travelled from as far afield as Portsmouth and Shrewsbury.

The festival, a celebration of performance art, is open to anyone nationally, but the majority of those taking part come from Herefordshire.

With nearly 1,300 entries received this year, more than 400 of them in the speech and drama section, additional days and venues had to be added to accommodate the record numbers taking part. A big increase in entries in the dance section saw it moved to the Bishop of Hereford's Bluecoat School for three days.

An excellent evening's entertainment was provided on Tuesday evening by a gathering of adult choirs. Ledbury Community Choir won the Harmonic Society Cup and on Saturday evening was also presented with the Festival Choral Trophy for a very entertaining vocal performance.

The Hereford Cathedral School choir, under the directorship of Neil Moore not only won the Secondary Schools Advanced Choir Class, but after their performance at the concert, they were presented with the Choir of the Year prize and Elgar in Hereford Young Musicians award - the latter being given for the very first time by the Elgar in Hereford Group.

Jacob Wooderson amazed everyone with his beautiful playing of the recorder and local group the Tunewrights, gave a different perspective to the strings day, adding an Irish dancer to their mixed ensemble.

The piano days were crowned by the fine playing of a Bach prelude by young Catriona Turnbull, who took the Young Musician of the Year Award.

The Young Speech and Drama Performer of the Year was Cecily Pytel, who during the week had consistently high marks in all aspects of the speech and drama section.

All adjudicators praised the standard of ability and performance, saying that it had been a pleasure to be in Hereford.

"Huge thanks must go to the stewards. They are all volunteers, and we simply wouldn't have a festival without them," said organiser Carol Thompson, who has been involved with the annual event since she was 17. "In 1965, when I was at the Bluecoat school, the then-organiser Muriel Fildes asked them to recommend someone to work for her. I've been there ever since."