Last updated 22:02, Wednesday, 20 August 2008

FAVOURITE hymns is the theme of a four-day flower festival, starting tomorrow in Liddesdale parish church.

Fiona Pears will be performing with her band at the Buccleuch Centre in Langholm on August 30

And at 6pm on Sunday there will be a Songs of Praise service, during which members of the congregation will say why they have chosen the hymns that will be sung.

Refreshments will be available on all four days. Entry is £2 adults, £1 children and free for pre-school children. All the money raised will go to the church.

The festival is open tomorrow from 1pm to 6pm, on Saturday from 10.30am to 5pm, on Sunday from 11.30am to 5pm and on Monday from 10.30am to 6pm.

Hayley Westenra’s violinist, New Zealand virtuoso and composer Fiona Pears, returns to the Buccleuch Centre stage on the final night of the Langholm & Eskdale music and arts festival.

Fiona, who will appear with her own band on Saturday, August 30, started performing as a soloist with orchestras aged 12.

Now based in London, she has forged a career as an international soloist and recording artist which has seen her perform in concert halls around the world.

Her music is a fiery melting pot of flavours: Latin, Jazz, Celtic and classical as well as some traditional Gypsy favourites. Fiona is an electrifying and visual performer who thrills audiences wherever she plays.

The concert begins at 7.30pm and tickets cost £13.50, concessions £12.

There is a change of venue for the Chapterhouse Theatre Company’s production of Sleeping Beauty this Saturday. The performance has moved from Langholm rugby club to the Reid & Taylor garden in William Street.

In Sleeping Beauty we follow the adventures of Louisa and her friends who, as evacuees to the countryside in the Second World War, find fun and song in enacting this wonderful story.

The show is just long enough, at 1½ hours, for the children to enjoy and includes a fairytale fancy dress parade during the interval.

The play begins at 3pm and tickets cost £10 or £7 for children aged three to 17. Bring your own picnic and drinks.

There are still tickets for the performances of Little Shop of Horrors tonight, tomorrow and Saturday.

Featuring young actors from Langholm, this musical has a bloodthirsty plant, a demented dentist and a love story all wrapped up in a 1950s spoof sci-fi plot.

The show starts at 7.30pm and tickets are £10, £8 concessions.

There are also a few tickets left for Auld Langholm, a rerun of the Castle Craigs Club’s evening of wit and wonder, presented by local cards David McVittie and Billy Young, next Thursday at 7.30pm. Tickets are £5.

Tune up your vocal chords for the LAODS’s Gilbert & Sullivan in a Day this Sunday. Join members in a scratch performance of Trial by Jury and a selection of G&S favourites.

You can either turn up on the day at 1.30pm and join the performance chorus or come to the evening performance in the Buccleuch Centre at 7.30pm and maybe sing along. Participation costs £5 and the concert £8.

Next Wednesday music student Ross Luescher performs an organ recital in Langholm parish church in aid of church funds.

Ross, of Langholm, is studying with renowned international recitalist Kevin Bowyer as part of his degree in music at Glasgow University. The programme includes works by Mendelssohn, Rutter and J S Bach. Tickets are £4 and the concert starts at 7.30pm.

All tickets for the festival are available by calling 013873 81196 or go to www.buccleuchcentre.com

Visitors to Hawick have until August 31 to see the exhibition A Publisher and His Friends in the Waterfall Gallery at Hawick Museum.

This National Library of Scotland touring exhibition is interactive and introduces the John Murray Archive, telling the story of the Murray publishing family from Edinburgh and their archive of travellers’ writings, showcasing three authors: David Livingstone, Lord Byron and Isabella Bird Bishop.

Art-lovers will have the chance to buy from the works on display at the Mainhill Gallery, Ancrum from Saturday, August 30 to Sunday, September 21.

Roads Less Travelled reflects some of the more unusual aspects of landscape painting. Featuring both past and contemporary artists, the exhibition includes paintings and watercolours by Earl Haig OBE RSA.

The two-day Galloway Country Fair is being held this Saturday and Sunday at Rae Hills, St Anns, Moffat.

The fair offers entertainment and education in the countryside. Trade, craft and food stands, all-day main ring entertainment, ‘have a go’ competitions, RAF flying display, coastguard rescue helicopter, falconry, terrier racing, clay pigeon shooting, axe-throwing, archery, stick-making, fishing demo, hound parade and much more will keep everyone in the family interested.

The fair runs from 9am to 6pm. More details at www.gallowaycountryfair.co.uk

A family history seminar for beginners, intermediates and advanced genealogists/family researchers is being held on Saturday, September 6 at the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, Edinburgh Road, Dumfries.

The seminar consists of five workshops: beginners to genealogy;brickwall sessions; Scottish property records; emigration records; and family history in customs records.

Places must be booked and cost £5, which includes lunch. Registration forms are at libraries, Dumfries & Galloway Family History Society or at www.family-history-seminar.freeola.com