Hundreds of people enjoyed the busy first weekend of the second Chippenham Arts Festival, with concerts, walks and exhibitions.

On Saturday night, dozens of youngsters from many local dance groups put together a showcase to display their talents, in Dance, Dance, Dance Again, at The Olympiad.

Among those going through their paces were members of the newlyformed Wiltshire Youth Dance Company as well as the Wootton Bassett Angels.

Exhibitions included the Artists in Residence at the Weighbridge Gallery at Chippenham Station and a display of creative and artistic work by members of the University of the Third Age at the Jubilee Building.

The festival runs for two weeks with a host of exciting events still to come, including Chippenham Cantata at St Andrew's Church on Saturday and the Ramsdale Trio on Sunday at 7.30pm in The Cause arts centre.

The work of young people will be on display at an event called Shout in the Neeld Hall on Monday at 7.30pm with art exhibitions, live music, dance and video premiers, part of the Creative Voice Project run by Wiltshire County Council's youth development service.

Full programme details and tickets for all arts festival events are available from Chippenham Tourist Information Centre.

A hectic first weekend for the festival culminated on Sunday with a mellow and cultivated concert by the Bradford Baroque Band at The Cause.

The band was formed in 1996 to perform chamber music on period instruments and the combination of recorder, flute, cello, bassoon and harpsichord were perfectly suited to the refined ambience of the new auditorium at The Cause.

Members of the audience were seated in the pews of the former church building, to enjoy a programme of music from the 18th century, as well as one piece composed by band member Mark Davies.

The evening commenced with Tambourin, by Jean-Marie Leclair, followed by works by Blavet and Telemann.

The first half concluded with the Ostinato and Aria taken from Mr Davies' Chamber Symphony, written in 1999.

This contemporary piece written for the Baroque instruments provided a delightful contrast to the earlier pieces.

After the interval the band proceeded with a accomplished Cello Sonata by Vivaldi, then pieces by Zipoli, JS Bach and Quantz.

The final piece, the Trio Sonata in C, involved all the players, with Claire Heaney on flute, Mark Davies on cello, Peter Sneyd on bassoon, Owen Morse-Brown on recorder and Steven Hollas playing the harpsichord.

The players interspersed the concert with interesting snippets of information about their instruments and the entire performance was received with huge warmth by the audience.

As part of the festival, The Malford Players will be presenting their production of Under Milk Wood tonight and tomorrow at The Olympiad.

It is a topical production, as it is the 50th anniversary of the untimely death of poet Dylan Thomas.

The players have set themselves up with some stiff competition, staging the play at the same time as Radio 4 was airing its production, starring no less than the late, great Richard Burton as the narrator.

But the Malford Players can be relied upon to take up a challenge and to make a success of it.

Their production opened for a three-night run at Christian Malford Village Hall on Thursday and the players fielded a strong cast, the majority of whom took on a number of roles.

It is a tribute to their acting ability that each one succeeded so well, distinguishing the various roles they played. The players adopted Welsh accents to give the play added authenticity a difficult move which could have jarred very badly but the cast proved equal to the challenge and sounded very relaxed and natural in their roles.

The play was performed in the round, with a stage centred on a working village pump. Inventive use was made of minimal staging and the action was interspersed with songs and harp music performed by Angharad Le Duc.

Maggie Bracher played the fanatically house proud Mrs Ogmore Pritchard with huge conviction, and Sylvia Clegg was a triumph as Mrs Pugh. Paul Cullen took on five roles, including a powerful portrayal as the poetic Rev Eli Jenkins.

Sarah Davis was wonderfully alluring as the satin-slipped Mrs Dai Bread Two, and Carol Ibbetson created a delightfully wistful teenage Polly Garter.

Narrator and director Gill Morrell was a powerful presence keeping the play together.

All in all it was an impressive, funny, moving production and the two performances at the Olympiad deserve to be sold out.