Eight days of competition get under way at the Villa Marina on Saturday for The Manx Music, Speech and Dance Festival.

This year will see the 100th anniversary of the Cleveland Medal - the top prize at the Guild - being awarded.

And to celebrate the occasion, the festival programme has been redesigned with colour coding for venues, lots of photos, interesting snippets and some Guild skeet.

A centenary bag featuring the festival logo and Cleveland Medal is also available.

Among the new classes introduced this year are a community choir class for mixed choirs which will showcase young and adult voices singing together and an open cabaret-style drag class – Dragging It Up – open from year nine (13 and 14 years old) students to adults.

Guild chairman Anne Clarke said: ‘It’s packed with competitions that feature all genres of music, speech, drama and dance, offering something for everyone to take part in or to relax and enjoy watching.

‘With an all day ticket costing just £5 and free for children you can pop in and out of any competition venues to watch your choice of classes during the days or evenings and that includes some classes that will be held at St Thomas’s Church.’

To encourage festival goers to make a day of it, food and drink will be available to buy from food vans parked outside the Villa.

Filbey’s will be serving lunch each day from midday to 3pm and dinner from 5pm to 7.30pm.

And Barista Express will be offering hot drinks.

Festival goers will be able to take their food and drink into the Colonnade Suite or they can take their own picnic.

The competition kicks off on Saturday with classes for brass bands, and folk song and dancing.

It promises to be a fun evening in the Royal Hall with Dragging It Up! followed by 1980s nostalgia with the music/dance class Anything Goes.

St Thomas’s Church, in Douglas, is one of the venues on Sunday, where classes include organ playing, oratorio solo and reading from the Bible.

Brass band classes continue into Sunday in the Royal Hall.

Piano classes take place on Monday as well as vocal duets, trios and quartets.

Tuesday includes instrumental classes as well as the popular junior Songs from the Musicals class.

Public speaking, news reading and presentation classes take place on Wednesday along with the operatic solo. The adult Songs from the Musicals class takes place on Thursday evening, with 26 entrants.

Friday will see youngsters compete for the Sheffield Plate, the top award for children’s solo singing.

It will be followed by the vocal duets final and then the Cleveland Medal Test, featuring the six singers with the highest marks from across the adult solo singing categories.

These classes will be judged by Luise Horrocks, a highly experienced member of the British and International Federation of Festivals.

The final day of competition, Saturday, April 29, features adult choirs, a range of Manx classes and stand up comedy.

Each day also features spoken word and speech and singing for children and adults.

For full details of classes and times see the programme, which is available (£5) in shops around the island and the Villa Marina box office.

The festival bag is available from Guild secretary Sandra for £8.

For more information about the festival see manxmusicfestival.org