Top acts for venue

St Annes Palace is to host monthly Saturday Night at the Palace evenings from this summer, featuring top line tribute acts.

The sequence will begin with an Abba tribute act on August 13 and other acts booked for later in the year include The Angettes, a Motown-style female group, and Peter Kay, Cliff Richard and Rod Stewart tribute acts.

Dining will be included and John Burgess, chairman of the Friends of St Annes Palace charity, which runs the venue, said: “The concept is to provide an added dining and entertainment experience for the St Annes community on a Saturday evening with a pre-show sumptuous buffet followed by a top class tribute act in the five-star rated Palace facilities.”

The Palace, a former theatre and cinema, has proved popular as a community hub venue since being opened up to the public by the Freemasons, who have owned the building in Garden Street since the late 1950s.

The Friends was set up as a charitable group to run and promote the venue, with a variety of trustees including community champion Bev Sykes, whilst Just Good Friends companionship organisation was the first to use it as a regular base.

The Palace has already staged special events such as the St Annes town mayor’s ball and a Rhythm and Swing Festival, held for the first time last September, which it is hoped will become an annual event.

John added: “We were inundated with inquiries and bookings for rooms for meetings and for all kinds of leisure activities from the off.

“The groups represented are the heart and soul of our community, and as Masons we are privileged to support them in their work through the provision of these facilities at St Annes Palace.

“The special events have gone well and we are delighted to be able to offer the regular entertainment evenings, to which we are all very much looking forward.”

Details of forthcoming events are available by emailing [email protected].