Sisters Jemima, 7, left, and Kinvara Gow, 8, took part in Perform in Perth, in verse speaking and bible reading respectively.

Around 3,800 performers will take part in annual celebration

An annual celebration of young musical talent has begun in the Fair City.

The ever-popular Perform in Perth competition will see around 3,800 musicians, singers, speakers and dancers battle it out for a variety of accolades.

The start of the two-week festival, which is now in its 94th year, was delayed because of the severe weather. It got under way on Tuesday with poetry, speeches and Bible readings at the AK Bell Library.

The competition continues this week with more spoken word sessions and drumming.

Piano sessions, which were due to start the festival on Saturday, will now be held on Tuesday March 13 at the St Leonard’s in the Field Church.

Perform in Perth president Eileen Watson said: “There are around 90 hours of performance over the whole festival, through all the disciplines of music, speech and dance.

“We are now one year nearer our centenary, which we shall be celebrating from 2020 through to the 2021 festival. Now is the time to start looking out any old newspaper cuttings and photographs, so that we can celebrate in style.”

She said the group which organises the show, Perthshire Music Festival, had received backing from the Creative Communities Fund to help hire the Soutar Theatre at the city’s AK Bell Library.

The group has also received £1,500 from the council’s common good fund towards the £24,000 running costs.

Contests will also be held at Perth Concert Hall and the Gleanearn Community Campus.

The competition has been running since the 1920s, but was rebranded as Perform in Perth in 2003. Well known adjudicators often visit the show to take part in the judging process.

This year’s visitors include former Hibernian footballer and actor Brian Marjoribanks, renowned pianist Margaret Murray-McLeod and piper Derek Potter, who led the pipes and drums at the Queen Mother’s funeral.

A concert featuring some of this year’s winners will bring the festival to a close on Saturday March 17.

We are now one year nearer our centenary, which we shall be celebrating from 2020 through to the 2021 festival. EILEEN WATSON

Picture: Steve MacDougall.

Picture: Steve MacDougall. Hannah Alexander, 8, left, and her sister Melissa, 10, both from St Leonards School, St Andrews, who were taking part in the festival yesterday.