A MIXTURE of exclusive classical music, jazz and farcical family theatre will welcome visitors to Harvington Hall over the next few days.

The 19th annual Harvington Festival begins tomorrow with bookings being taken for a performance by a classical music trio and an open-air play by the Birmingham-based Crescent Theatre Company. Steve Liles, James Connolly, Lisa Meredith, Daniel Jones and Jayne Lunn in character for the Crescent Theatre's production of Charley's Aunt.

Another highlight will be an outdoor performance by a jazz group - and organisers will also have fingers crossed for good weather for a family picnic day which will offer a host of activities.

Tomorrow night's performance by the Valentini Trio - Janet Ludford, Colin Baines and Jaqueline Hill - is being held in the surroundings of the hall's 60-capacity Great Chamber.

They will be playing work by Dvorak, Haydn and Mendelssohn in an event which also offers supper and wine.

Harvington Hall's garden will be opening at 5.30pm on Saturday for picnickers to gather ahead of a 7.30pm offering from the Clent-based Ad Hoc jazz group.

However, all will not be lost should the heavens open. Harvington Hall business co-ordinator Sherida Breeden said: "We're thinking of using Winterfold House School if the weather is bad."

Advance booking is important and audience members should bring picnics and chairs.

Sunday will start with a festival mass at St Mary's Church and continue as a family picnic day, featuring Elizabethan dancing and music, clog dancing, morris men, children's activities and tours of the hall.

The festival, founded by the late Janet Arbuthnott in 1983, will be brought to a rousing end when the Crescent Theatre Company presents Brandon Thomas' Charley's Aunt.

The play, centred on an Oxford college in 1892, is billed as an "energetic farce".

For more information call 01562 777846.