THE Standard has put together a round-up of events happening in Harwich and Manningtree this weekend. 

Festival will be blooming lovely

A BIANNUAL flower festival is taking place in Great Bromley. The festival, at St George’s Church, will see blooms on display from today until Monday. There will also be stalls, refreshments and a raffle. Tomorrow afternoon, the Bradwell Bell Ringers will be ringing the church bells, while on Sunday there will be a barbecue and tours of the towers. The day will culminate with the raffle being drawn at 4pm and a village “Songs of Praise” at 6pm. There will also be an open gardens event in aid of the church and St Helena’s Hospice. Programmes cost £3 per person and are available from the church. The festival runs today, tomorrow and Monday from 10am to 5pm, and from noon until 4pm on Sunday. It coincides with the Great Bromley scarecrow festival, with this year’s theme Brolly Folly. People are asked not to bring dogs, with the exception of disability dogs.

Lion will be king of the singers!

SCHOOL choirs are teaming up with experienced singers for a production fit for a king of the jungle. The Stour Choral Society will be singing alongside the choirs from Highfields and Lawford Primary Schools at The Chapel, in Old Hall, East Bergholt, tomorrow at 7pm. The concert, called The Lion in Summer, will feature music from John Rutter’s The Sprig of Thyme and Disney classic The Lion King. Tickets cost £8 for adults, £4 for children and £20 for a family, on 01206 395263 or 01206 299222.

Coffee morning to celebrate Armed Forces Day

THE Royal British Legion is celebrating VE and Armed Forces Day with a coffee morning. There will be live music from a 1940s swing band, a tombola and various stalls at Foundry Court, in Colchester Road, Manningtree, between 11am and 1pm tomorrow. Entry is free

Choir to perform two concerts

A TOP vocal group have two concerts this weekend. Harwich Sing are performing at Kingsway Hall, in Dovercourt, today from 7pm and on Sunday from 3pm. Tracks from Take That, Leona Lewis and Goo Goo Dolls are all on the set list. Tickets cost £7 for adults and £5 for children. For more details, call Clare Leach on 07554 423613.

Find out why riot broke out in town with exhibition

THE history of Harwich between 1799 and 1815 will be the subject of an exhibition as part of Harwich Festival of the Arts. Harwich Town Council is hosting the exhibition at the town’s Guildhall on the weekends of this year’s festival. The council’s honorary archivists have chosen the time period as 2015 marks the bicentenary of the Battle of Waterloo. Key aspects of the Napoleonic era will be featured, including the building of HMS Conqueror in Harwich’s Royal Dockyard. Other occasions, such as the visit to Harwich by Nelson in HMS Medusa in 1801, will be examined as well. The public will also be able to view the Guildhall’s old jail, where Napoleonic prisoners carved detailed carvings of ships into the wood panels. The exhibition will take place tomorrow and Sunday, and July 4 and 5, from 2.30pm to 4.30pm. Entry is free.