EXCITING and unusual events have been added to the programme for the first New Forest Arts Festival which starts tomorrow ( Saturday June 11) and runs until Sunday June 26.

The Festival offers residents and visitors the chance to experience a wide range of art in unusual spaces, including a beach hut, castle and pubs.

There are lots of opportunities to get involved, with events including workshops, drama performances and films, and many free to attend.

Led by the New Forest National Park Authority with local creative organisations, the Festival hosts a variety of creative events celebrating the New Forest’s landscape.

Southampton Brass Ensemble perform at All Saints Church, Thorney Hill on June 25 at 7pm. Hidden on the edge of the Forest, All Saints Church is a stunning baroque style building with a creative history.

The Ensemble will be performing a range of modern and older music, light and classical. Tickets cost £6 and are available at www.newforestnpa.gov.uk/brassconcert.

The Festival will also include an outside performance of Shakespeare’s ‘A Midsummer Night’s Dream’ at the Treehouse Study Centre near Beaulieu. Performed by students from Brockenhurst College on June 23, it will be an outside promenade acting spectacle including live music and dance.

The Treehouse Study Centre is set within ancient woodland near Beaulieu and has been kindly donated by the Countryside Education Trust. To reserve tickets for the performance, please contact Moira Rock on 01590 625555 or email mrock@brock.ac.uk. Tickets cost £7, £5 for concessions and £2 for children under 6.

The Festival also features several events at the Forest Arts Centre, New Milton, including a poetry performance on June 21 at 7.30pm.

Visitors can also enjoy a performance from Lymington Town Band in the Fuller-McLellan Hall in Lymington Community Centre on 26 June between 2.30pm and 4.30pm. The free concert will feature a variety of music, from popular melodies and jazz to marches and classical works.

For more information and to download the festival programme see www.newforestnpa.gov.uk/artsfestival.