Festive favourites such as ‘The Holly And The Ivy’ and ‘I Saw Three Ships’ rub shoulders with secular carols like ‘The Boar’s Head’ and dance tunes like ‘Old Joe Clark’. The Carnival Band, in their 25th anniversary year, are five musical explorers, five voices, 25 instruments, five dozen styles of music and 500 fresh ideas for music making, combining music from across the centuries with sounds from around the world in an irreverently joyous mix! If life is determined by a series of happy accidents, then somebody upstairs was beaming long and hard the day the Carnival Band happened to come across Maddy Prior, one of the most enduring, influential and respected artists in British music. Thrown together in 1984 on a ‘let’s see what we come up with’ basis for a Yuletide Radio 2 broadcast, what began as a one-off session in a village hall in Cumbria has endured for over twenty years and has become something of a tradition in its own right with regular tours and five albums released.

More information at maddypriorandthecarnivalband.viinyl.com. Tickets available from the box office at 01865 241717.