A FESTIVAL featuring classical and jazz music and a slapstick play is being held at a historic landmark near Kidderminster this month.

Harvington Hall Festival 2005 runs from Friday, July 1 until Sunday, July 17 and kicks off with a classical concert in the great chamber by the Doric String Quartet.

An Elizabethan Living History event will take place the following weekend, with the emphasis on demonstrations of dancing in the gardens, while visitors are also being invited to take picnics on the evening of Saturday, July 2 and enjoy listening to the Dutch Lewis Jazz Group play in the gardens.

A special festival mass will also take place at St Mary's Church in Harvington on Sunday, July 3 at 10.30am. The final weekend of the festival, which is in its 23rd year, will feature three outdoor performances of Carlo Goldini's The Servant of Two Masters by The Crescent Theatre company.

The show starts at 7.15pm on Friday and Saturday, July 15 and 16 and 3pm on Sunday and visitors are again being encouraged to picnic in the gardens beforehand.

The hall's business manager, Sherida Breeden, said the annual festival was started in 1983 by Janet Arbuthnott, whose son, James, now runs the Stone House Cottage Gardens and is a member of the festival committee.

"It is always a very busy couple of weeks," she said. "The evenings are usually fully booked and we get lots of people picnicking and having a good time."

More information and tickets for any of the events can be obtained by calling the festival hotline on 01562 777846.