THIS summer’s Ribchester Music Festival will feature its biggest and most diverse line-up yet.

Organisers also revealed the week-long festival will be the last after 23 years.

Festival chairman Tim Rainford said financial pressures meant the event’s directors were unwilling to commit to a festival in 2016.

He said: “As a non-profit charitable organisation we have relied on corporate and local government sponsorship, ticket sales, and donations from Friends of the Festival for the festival to survive.

“As both sponsorships and ticket sales have declined in recent years, and the costs of staging the festival have increased in spite of using talented student performers from the Royal Academy of Music in London and the Royal Northern College of Music in Manchester, it means that, after this year, the festival will not be financially viable.

“Whilst we are saddened by this decision, and it will be a disappointment to many of our loyal supporters, we feel we want to go out on a high and make this as memorable a festival as any that we have had in the previous 22 years.

“We have put together an exciting array of events, with more music, more venues and more choice than ever before.

“There’s classical, blues, swing, opera, jazz, folk, brass, and choral concerts, as well as street theatre and even a pub quiz.”

Mr Rainford also revealed the festival would be hosting 16 different events in eight different venues.

He said: “We are taking the festival to new venues, with pre-show wine and canapes at The Glass House and Potters Barn, as well as a barbecue at Stydd Gardens.”

This year’s event will run from Monday, June 22 to Sunday 28, preceded by the village’s traditional field day on Saturday, June 20.

Highlights of this year’s event include the return of Ugnius Pauliukonis, the Lithuanian pianist whose performance in last year’s festival stole the show, a late night concert by The Swing Commanders, and a Saturday night performance by The A4 Brass Quartet, featuring principal players from the Grimethorpe Colliery and other Yorkshire brass bands.

Blues and jazz lovers are also in for a treat with a series of concerts including Kyla Brox, one of the UK’s leading blues and soul singers.

Mr Rainford said: “There is something on every single day from Ribchester Field Day on June 20 right through to Festival Sunday. And if you include all the events over Field Day weekend, there is something for everyone in what promises to be a fabulous ‘Ribchester Week’. Don’t go on holiday!”

Over the last 23 years the festival has brought some of the world’s greatest musicians to perform in Ribchester, such as Dame Evelyn Glennie, Julian Lloyd Webber, Pascal Rogé, Humphrey Lyttleton, Tasmin Little and more.

Mr Rainford said: “We would like to thank the Friends of Ribchester Festival for their generous support, and the current sponsorships who make the 2015 Festival possible.” said Mr Rainford.

Event details and tickets are now available to buy on the festival website ribchesterfestival.co.uk and ticketweb.co.uk