GRASSINGTON Festival is reaching out to younger audiences this year with a very different kind of rock music.

This year as Grassington Festival reaches its 35th year, they have decided to enter new territory.

For the last ten years the festival has worked hard at including and involving younger audiences with a full programme of children’s theatre and visual arts activities.

However, this year on Monday, June 22, the festival will present its first ever classical concert for children in their 700 seat festival marquee.

Alongside Peter and The Wolf and Leopold Mozart’s Toy Symphony, the festival will be hosting the world premiere of The Song of the Sea that Was - which is an orchestral piece created by Bradford-based Purple Patch Arts.

With support from the Yorkshire Dales National Park, a group of adults with learning disabilities from Purple Patch, have worked with local musicians to compose six tunes which convey the story of limestone - from its origins as the flora and fauna of our local landscape, to its current form as a geological feature. Composer, Tom Lydon then took the group’s tunes to create a full orchestral score from them.

The event will also showcase a solo lithophone, which is a percussion instrument similar to a xylophone, but which has been especially made by Quarry Arts in Ingleton, out of locally quarried carboniferous limestone – and like a xylophone, it can be tuned to concert pitch. Skipton Building Society Camerata who have also supported the project will be premiering The Song of the Sea that Was on this very special lithophone.

Grassington Festival Director, Kate Beard said: “We are incredibly excited about supporting this project with Purple Patch and the YDNPA, as it offers children the chance to experience the wonder of classical music in a fun and inspirational way. Using the music of singing rock from local quarries is also an innovative and exciting way of bringing the story of our local geology to young ears.”

The festival is aiming to fund this unique event using crowd funding. Rewards attached to this project include a percussion lesson with a member of the Camerata and a signed copy of the score.

If you are interested in supporting this event visit crowdfunder.co.uk/the-lithophone-project. To buy tickets visit grassington-festival.org.uk or call the Box Office on 01756 752691.