HUNDREDS of villagers immersed themselves in music at Ashton Keynes’ largest ever community event last week.

The Ashton Keynes music festival created opportunities for villagers to participate in music making, whether that be as performers, participants in workshops, or as a member of the audience.

The six-day festival saw many events sold out such as, Jazz Brunch, a Brazilian themed evening, and choral concert in the Holy Cross church , which saw the church pews removed for the first time in 137 years.

Ashton Keynes Primary school also held music lessons at the school, using instruments such as glockenspiels, which were funded by the festival and performed a concert for parents.

A spokesman for the festival said: “Most remarkable of all is the level of community participation. There were 225 participants at the samba drumming, Norwegian folk, A capella singing and beat-boxing workshops, while more than 200 volunteers cooked, washed up, organised, served, cleared away, decorated, lifted, and much much more to make this event happen, along with financial support from the principal sponsor CB Slade and sponsors the White Hart Inn and Austen-Lewis.

Other events, including a Friday Night Live in a pub style atmosphere in the huge Bradstone marquee.

An event for emerging teenage bands, a singalong Grease cinema evening and Easy Sunday Sounds featuring the primary school choir, children from Pre-School, and many others, saw them all playing and singing their hearts out.