A celebratory festival of Manx and Celtic customs was launched in Peel last weekend.

The Oie Voaldyn launch gathering took place at the Peel Masonic Hall, and saw the different groups of volunteers and actors get together to start planning this year’s event and develop new ideas and themes.

Among the new inclusions for this year’s festival is the creation of a special festival choir.

The ’Voices from the Fire’ choir held its first rehearsals over the weekend under the leadership of the tribal drumming and singing instructor John Bowker, who led the singers through a series of chants and songs, before leading everyone to take part in an Apache spiral dance.

Organiser John Shakespeare said that there is still time for more people to join in with the choir before the festival begins on Saturday, May 2.

’John Bowker is going to return to the island around the last couple of weeks in March and we would really love to have some more people and new members to come along and get involved with the "Voices from the Fire" choir, said John.

’You don’t have to be a trained singer, musician or be able to read music to join in with this choir.

’We have a few tribal-style chants available to listen to, all sung in four-part harmonies which are all broken down into four parts: top, alto, tenor or bass.

’It makes it very easy for people to learn.

’Anyone who would like to take part in the choir can keep an eye on the "Voices from the Choir" Facebook page and find out when we will be having our next round of rehearsals.

’John is a brilliant teacher who has collected dances and tribal songs from all over the world. He had everyone dancing around the hall on Saturday in a spiral dance, which was a brilliant way of getting everyone together.’

More details of the Oie Voaldyn festival can be found at oievoaldyn.com