Photo by lincolnblues on flickr

Sing The Docks takes place this weekend as part of the Riversway Festival. Organisers are looking for as many choirs and singing groups as possible to get involved.

The event is a Preston Guild project led by composer and producer Peter Moser and singing leader Beth Allen and produced by More Music, working alongside the Preston Guild team. The project will develop over three years to the grand celebrations of 2012.

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Rose Hodgson, project manager, said: “The idea was to create a singing project which made links between the Riversway festival, local schools and communities, and the wealth of boating and nautical songs which are available in our own and other musical traditions.

“We are also linking the event to Wateraid, and the Sing for Water events, which take place across the country”

Over the weekend there will be a programme of workshops to get involved in, and performances to experience by local musicians. The highlight of the weekend will be the Big Sing for Water, on Sunday afternoon.

The group will be joined by hundreds (organisers hope to gather 400) of singers for a massed sing on the docks which will be part of the Water Aid awareness and fund raising event.

“The Guild comes every 20 years and in 2012 is being given a visionary and extraordinary artistic development with a variety of large performance projects as well as massive community involvement.

“There is also a significant international dimension to the years programme. Preston Dock is a strange place bounded by a retail park and residential housing with a small but significant water based community.

“Stella Hall asked More Music to develop a massed participatory singing project that drew people to the water and also linked politically and socially to the nationwide Sing for Water projects which focus attention on the developing countries where water poverty is a serious issue” said Hodgson.

The Riversway Festival begins tomorrow and runs until Sunday. Other activities planned for the weekend are street theatre, an art and craft market and a real ale bar.