The halls were alive with the sound of music at the 55th annual Haydn Wood Music Festival over the weekend.

Young and gifted players did battle in piano, guitar, vocal, choral, brass, woodwind and string classes at Linthwaite Methodist Church Centre in Stones Lane.

Special guests at the event included adjudicator Stanley Roocroft, Michael Hampshire, regional representative of the Yorkshire and North Lincolnshire Area of the British and International Federation of Festivals and trophy donors Clr Andrew Marchington and Rose Marchington.

Imogen Davey, of Marsden, took the Haydn Wood Trophy for the highest mark of any Colne Valley-based entrant in the competition.

Other winners included Michael Gee who won the Kirklees Leisure Services Trophy for the highest mark of the festival and Isabelle Goodall-Munroe who scooped the Colne Valley Guardian Trophy for the highest mark in the vocal classes.

Mr Roocroft, of Hawes, North Yorkshire, said: “The festival has been a joy and delight to adjudicate and I have enjoyed this friendly festival where the welcome and hospitality had been amazing.

“We have all had a wonderful time enjoying music-making.”

Next year’s festival – named after the late Slaithwaite-born violinist and composer Haydn Wood – will be held at the same venue, on November 20-21, 2015, with Marilynne Davies, from Harrogate, as adjudicator.