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Ten dates are currently confirmed for the concert, whose rousing climax has the whole audience, the organ and Choir joining in to turn folk songs into hymns.

Originally created to celebrate the versatility of Vaughan Williams, it is the only national touring event marking his 150th birthday. It has attracted large and joyful audiences, critical praise from both the folk and classical worlds and considerable radio airplay. Here’s a video: https://youtu.be/op9tHxWDEOM

Vaughan Williams was an avid collector of folk songs and used thirty of the 800 songs he collected as the tunes for some of the most popular hymns in the 1906 English Hymnal he edited.

The second half of the concert recreates that folk song to hymn journey From Pub to Pulpit. Acapella folk group Broomdasher sing the folk song, instrumental trio Coracle create variations around it and – in a unique collaboration at every venue – the host organ, choir and the whole audience stand up to raise the roof by singing the hymn, often in arrangements specially written by the Director of Music.

"The aim was to broaden people’s knowledge of the breadth of Vaughan Williams’s work – from folk to classical to choral,"" said Project Director John Palmer. “In 2022, we opened two Classical Music festivals, two Folk festivals, played large Cathedrals like Wells and Lincoln and popular folk festivals like Broadstairs. Everywhere the audiences wholeheartedly joined in and had a great time”.

Current 2023 dates: Feb 11 Coventry Cathedral; Mar 4 Chelmsford Cathedral; May 20 Brecon Cathedral; *May 24 St Luke’s Chelsea; June 8 Huddersfield Town Hall (Kirklees Year of Music); June 9 Leeds (Workshops only); June 10 St Silas Blackburn (with Blackburn Music Society); June 17 St Thomas Kendal (with the Cumbria Festival Chorus); July 1 All Saints Hove (with The Vaughan Williams School of Music); July 27 Gloucester Cathedral (Three Choirs Festival) * Date TBC