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Children from Rosegrove Junior and Infants' Schools waiting to get "on stage" at the Burnley Schools Music and Drama Festival at the Girls' High School.

From a review by Norman Powell, photographs by Keith Snowden:
The Burnley Schools' Music and Drama Festival which opened on Tuesday evening, 30th March 1971, with three concerts held simultaneously at the Girls' High School, Barden and St Theodore's is a complete sell-out. With all tickets sold for the performances on Thursday evening, and the final performances tonight. The quality of the concerts more than justify the demand for seats. Over 1,000 children from 23 schools are involved in the three concerts, and the programme at each school covers the whole range of music and drama in infant, junior, and senior schools.

I attended the concert at the Girls' High School, where an appreciative audience thoroughly enjoyed the varied programme. Rosehill opened the programme with simple rhythmic exercises by the 5-year-olds, a beautifully dressed "Magic Toy Shop" by the 6-year-olds, and "The Enchanted Forest," by the 7-year-olds. Rosegrove Infants' School contributed an attractive programme by the same age range, with singing games, mimes, and tambourines. The band and choir of Lowerhouse Junior School, composed of 11-year-old boys and girls, showed real ability in "Daisies are our Silver," and "Aiken Drum." Holy Trinity Junior and Infants' schools combined to present a very amusing action poem "The Seaside," which was extremely well done, with occasional flashes of imagination. "Ahmet the Woodseller," by Rosehill Junior School was a most attractive folk tale, extremely well dressed and performed. Perhaps the most outstanding feature of this programme by the junior children was the clarity of the voices, and even the youngest speakers could be heard at the back of the hall.

An excerpt from Benjamin Britten's "Noye's Fludd," was presented by the first year pupils of Ivy Bank School, with a most impressive back-ground and varied collection of animals. Burnley Grammar School's contribution was a small orchestra which played the "Overture in A Minor," by Bach, and the programme was brought to a close by the High School Choir who presented an excerpt from "The Mikado." Mr M. Dawson was the compere.
The range of work in music and drama in Burnley schools is imaginative and exciting, and the three concerts give a lively picture of what is being done.