BUDDING ukulele players are being invited to join in the fun at this year’s Seafest with ukulele band Some Like It Ossett.

The foursome will be leading a seaside-themed mass ukulele busk at the festival on Saturday, July 25,from 12.15pm, for around an hour, and anyone wanting to join in can download their songbook to practise in advance.

Some Like it Ossett’s Jacqui Wicks said: “We’ll rendezvous on the ‘Prom Prom Prom’ with our little ukuleles in our hands and get the festival off to a grand start. Anyone can join us, all you need to do is download our Seaside Songbook, practise the tunes and turn up.

“The songs are intended for beginners to intermediates and they should be ones you all know. So join us...let’s bring some sunshine.”

Songs include Drunken Sailor, Summer Holiday, Octopus’s Garden, Bring Me Sunshine and – of course – I Do Like To Be Beside the Seaside.

The Some Like It Ossett songbook can be downloaded from create.uk.net/resources/useful-documents.html

The 17th annual Scarborough maritime festival, which this year takes place from July 24 to 26, promises a dazzling programme of events and builds on last year’s hugely-successful festival.

Highlights of this year’s event will again be co-ordinated by Scarborough’s arts and cultural development agency, Create, and will also include workshops and a performance by Leeds band Hope and Social, headliners at last year’s Yorkshire Festival; poetry from A Firm of Poets; street theatre from Artizani Theatre Company, Artemis Lion Fish and Talking Birds, and a brand new arts marquee, with free drop-in arts sessions and story-telling.

There will also be rock-pooling and fossil-hunting walks from Hidden Horizons, a line-up of top chefs from around the region giving cookery demonstrations, a full programme of music headed by DJ Tooley, and the traditional blessing of the boats.

Janet Deacon, North Yorkshire area director for Welcome to Yorkshire, said: “We’re all so looking forward to the Some Like It Ossett ukulele busk – Scarborough’s West Pier will never have seen anything like it.”

Councillor Janet Jefferson, chairman of the Seafest steering group, said: “As a group we are very proud and grateful to the many sponsors and the support of dedicated members and volunteers who in turn have made this annual event sustainable. The Seafest festival was created to celebrate and bring an awareness of the sea and all it has provided to our community and tourism generally, with an emphasis on cooking, music and exhibitions.”