A HUGELY popular arts festival gets under way next today.

At 6.30pm, the first evening of entertainment by the Harwich Festival of the Arts will be held on Harwich Green.

On Thursday, there is then a wind quintet at 1pm, a tea dance at 3pm, a workshop on the opera Madama Butterfly at 6pm and a jazz concert with the Tendring Thunderbirds at the town’s Electric Palace at 8pm.

As part of the festival, Harwich Town Council will open the Grade I-listed Guildhall to the public on June 28 and 29 and July 4 and 5.