This year’s Skipton Music Festival will be dedicated to its former secretary, Ann Ware.

She had overseen the festival for nearly three decades and died shortly after last year’s event.

“Skipton Music Festival owes her an incalculable debt and accordingly, the Skipton Music Festival of 2014 is wholly dedicated to the memory and the legacy of Ann Ware,” said new secretary Jill Wright.

Retired teacher Mrs Wright said she had been a huge fan of the festival for years and approved of its aim – to enable youngsters to gain confidence by performing in a supportive atmosphere.

This year’s festival will run from Monday March 17 to Saturday March 22, with most of the classes at Skipton Town Hall.

However, because of number restrictions due to ongoing work at the hall, the junior choir classes on Friday afternoon will be moved to Christ Church and the adult choirs on Saturday afternoon will be heard in Holy Trinity Church.

And the final night concert – featuring some of the winners – will be ticket only to ensure the town hall’s capacity of 100 is not exceeded.

Entries in music classes are up on last year and, in a bid to attract new interest in the speech and drama classes, a fun performance workshop will be held on the opening day, when students will air their opinions on various subjects.

“We have struggled with speech and drama classes over the last few years, but we don’t want to lose them,” said Mrs Wright. “We are trying something new this year but would welcome ideas on how to liven them up further.”