THE longest day of the year saw lay clerks, choral scholars and boy choristers rehearse for one of the world’s oldest classical music festivals.

Singers from Hereford and Gloucester joined the 'home team' at Worcester Cathedral on Saturday, June 21 to work on repertoire for some of the main concerts set to take place in this year's Three Choirs Festival.

They then sang Evensong together in the cathedral, directed by Geraint Bowen, director of music at Hereford Cathedral, for the first half of the service and by Adrian Partington, director of music at Gloucester Cathedral, for the second half.

They were accompanied by organist Christopher Allsop, who is assistant director of music at Worcester Cathedral.

Worcester Three Choirs Festival 2014 takes place from Saturday, July 26 to Saturday, August 2 in the cathedral and other venues in and around the city.

Daily services of Evensong by the three cathedral choirs are an integral part of the festival and for the evening concerts the professional cathedral choirs will be joined by the Three Choirs Festival Chorus, made up of amateur sopranos, altos, tenors and basses from the three cities, and will be accompanied by the Philharmonia Orchestra.

For more information and tickets, go to 3Choirs.org or call the ticket office on 0845 652 1823.