A NEW music and film festival is taking place in Ealing this weekend with a wide range of events and exhibitions to showcase the artistic talent of the borough.

The Ealing Music and Film Festival was launched with an invitation-only Valentine’s evening gala reception for patrons, artists and sponsors at the Pillars Restaurant attended by Ed Vaizey, Minister for Culture and Communications.

Highlights of the festival will include star violinist and Ealing resident Tasmin Little playing Britten’s Violin Concerto tonight at St Barnabas Church in Pitshanger Lane. She will be accompanied by the English Chamber Orchestra, the most recorded in the world, who have their headquarters in Coningsby Road.

On Sunday, the Questors Theatre in Mattock Lane hosts a Raga evening featuring sitar player Mehboob Nadeem.

Veterans of the R & B scene are performing each evening at the Ealing Club, 42a The Broadway, founded in 1962 by Alexis Korner. Some people claim the music boom of the 1960s started here in Ealing, not in the Cavern Club, Liverpool.

The festival is being organised by residents to celebrate Ealing’s rich cultural heritage and contemporary talent. Organiser Patrick Chapman said: “This will be a truly local festival but in the long run one of far wider significance.”

The world-famous Ealing Studios, which under Sir Michael Balcon laid the foundations of the British film industry, and presently act as home for studio scenes in Downton Abbey, is hosting a programme of tours and talks and showing two classic British films, Went The Day Well? and Ice Cold In Alex.

For a full listing of the festival’s events and ticket information, visit the EMFF website at: www.ealingmusicandfilmfestival.org