Hugh Grant joins Wrexham MP to promote Singing Streets choir festival (Event returns to town tomorrow!)

A popular choir festival will return to the town centre tomorrow – with a famous face helping promote this weekend’s event.

Ian Lucas MP, organiser of the Wrexham Singing Streets Festival – met Hugh Grant this week while the pair were in Liverpool for the Labour Party conference and the actor was happy to pose with a poster for the free event, which takes place in Wrexham town centre on Saturday 29th September.

The pair were students together at New College, Oxford, in the late 1970s and early 80s.

Mr Lucas, MP for Wrexham, also spoke at a fringe event while in Liverpool where he talked about the regeneration of towns through arts and culture.

The Singing Streets festival – now in its third year – was created by Mr Lucas in 2016 with such themes in mind and this year’s promises to be the biggest and best yet, with 27 choirs featuring more than 1,000 performers attending.

“Singing Streets is a major success story and while I was in Liverpool I raised it as an example of how the arts – in this case, music – can be used in a positive way in towns like Wrexham,” said Mr Lucas.

“Open participation events like this are great because they engage the public and bring in people who might not normally visit. It will be a great showcase for Wrexham as a town and I’m grateful to everyone who has helped organise this year’s festival.

“Please come into town on Saturday and enjoy the music.”

Mr Lucas said it was good to see Hugh Grant again – the Four Weddings and a Funeral star was attending a dinner hosted by the Hacked Off campaign to coincide with the Labour conference – and tell him more about the success of Singing Streets.

The MP and his office organise the annual event, in collaboration with Wrexham Glyndŵr University, John Jones Quality Acoustics, Wrexham Community Choir volunteers, Gateway Church and Wrexham Business Group CIC.

Choirs will set up at six locations across the town – Eagles Meadow, Ty Pawb, Lord Street, Queens Square, the Argyle Arch on Hope Street and art Wrexham Museum. Performances begin at 11am and run through to about 4pm. Choirs and the public will gather at Queens Square at 1pm for a mass singalong.

While some of the choirs are locally based, others are coming from further afield. The music on offer will be from a range of genres.

Wrexham Singing Streets Festival is the second large public event to have taken place in the past week, with the revamped Wrexham Food and Drink Festival attracting 5,700 people to the town last weekend.

The events have been welcomed by Wrexham Council’s Lead Member for Economic Development, Cllr Terry Evans, who said: “This event promises to have something for everyone and I’m sure the event will build on the success of the previous years.

“The organisers have done a great job and are to be congratulated for their hard work.

“I hope everyone takes the time to come and support what promises to be a fantastic day.”