Excitement is building in an East Hampshire town with less than a month to go until a milestone festival begins.

This year is a major one for Petersfield Musical Festival as the annual event was first held 125 years ago in 1901.

So organisers are raising the bar with tickets now available for a “rich and varied” programme of events at Festival Hall and St Peter’s Church from March 13 to 21.

And they are confident audiences will be blown away from the start as a “young and dynamic wind band” based near Winchester will kick things off.

The award-winning St Cat’s Ensemble will take listeners on a “Symphonic Wind Global Journey from Gershwin to Gandalf” from 7.30pm on Friday, March 13.

Their programme will encompass a host of genres from jazz to film with highlights including a take on Johan de Meij’s Symphony No. 1, Lord of the Rings. They will be accompanied by Keelan Carew, as the popular BBC broadcaster and musical outreach pioneer will be the piano soloist in George Gershwin’s timeless Rhapsody in Blue.

Local favourites Gemini Consort and string orchestra SouthDowns Camerata will collaborate in another highlight as they’re coming together for a programme of music inspired by locally-based composers including Lucy Flint, Dorry Macaulay and Clive Osgood.

“The Gemini Consort and SouthDowns Camerata will explore themes of sorrow and joy,” said a PMF spokesperson.

“They’re also both on a mission to champion new and under-performed works. It promises to be fascinating.”

The nine-day festival will also be a first for many acts with with debutants including the popular and fun baroque collective, Red Priest.

“This dynamic and versatile group will present a lively programme of Baroque masters including Vivaldi, Bach and Handel, but in their own modern and up-beat interpretations,” added the spokesperson.

Also new are Brass Breakout Jazz Orchestra who will join Froxfield choir for an evening of Duke Ellington along with tap dancing and soloist Gloria Miller.

For lovers of orchestral music, Petersfield Orchestra are making their regular appearance featuring Gershwin’s Piano Concerto in F (soloist Karen Kingsley) and the rapturous Rachmaninov Symphonic Dances. Also included is Bernstein’s much-loved Candide Overture.

Festival conductor Paul Spicer will raise his baton for the 2026 choral concert, the Verdi Requiem, a powerful and deservedly famous work reflecting on man’s place in the universe.

“As usual, this year’s Festival showcases young students from local schools at its Youth Concerts,” added a spokesperson for the PMF, in a nod to their recent Festival of Young Composers in Studio TPS.

“For younger audience members, the theme of this year’s Family Concert is Sky High, when the Basingstoke Symphony Orchestra will explore ways of flying through music including films such as Chitty Chitty Bang Bang.”

There will be free pre-concert talks at 6.30pm ahead of two of the concerts, with former PMF Chair Philip Young also due to give a celebratory talk about the history of the festival since 1906.

For more details and tickets visit www.petersfieldmusicalfestival.org.uk