CHANGES are on the way at next month’s Festival of Remembrance at York Barbican, with folk rock singers and an opera singer taking part as well as a military band.

The event, which takes place on Sunday, November 5, will also start earlier than before, at 3pm, to give people enough time to catch Park & Ride buses for their journey home afterwards.

Producer Sandie Dunleavy said she was always keen to include younger artists alongside the festival’s seasoned singers, and this year she had a local opera tenor - Jake Walsh - to raise the roof.

She said she also had an ‘amazing girl’ who had just started secondary school and would sing alongside her father. “He’s the renowned rock folk singer Will Robey and will play guitar for Isabella,” she said.

“When I went to their home in July and spoke to her about Remembrance, we spent an hour, starting at the First World War.

“She had some knowledge of that war as they had studied it at school, but she hadn’t thought of the men, young and old, who had died and were never brought home.

“Will knew that they had relatives within his family who had served in the world wars, and together with their grandparents, they were able to research their family history and found them.”

Sandie said that last year she introduced a feature she had always thought was missing from the festival - ‘both sight and sound to bring history into focus’ - by showing newsreel footage of war.

She said that this year, Midlands-based film editor and veteran Adam Barlow had concentrated on three areas of war in film: The Battle of Passchendale in 1917, the Second Battle of El Alamein, which finished on November 5, 1942, and The Falklands War in 1982.

“As it was last year, Haxby-based music masters David and Diane Beale will accompany the films with breathtaking music,” she said.

“The MOD have kindly provided the military band and it’s the return of the Band of the Yorkshire Regiment. Add to this list the busiest singer in the county - the fabulous Jessa Liversidge and local barbershop group The Daytones, plus of course the standards and bearers.”

The festival has raised more than £150,000 over the years for the Poppy Appeal, which supports the work of The Royal British Legion. Tickets for this year’s event, costing between £12 and £16 are available from the Barbican box office between 10am and 2pm weekdays and from 5pm on event days.