Traditional Polish music, song and dance will come to Much Marcle on February 5.

The Warsaw Village Band performs a concert at the Great Barn, Hellens, as part of the Arts Alive Rural Touring Programme.

The band was founded in 1997 by six young musicians, wishing to preserve traditional Polish music.

While travelling the Polish countryside, they discovered lost styles of traditional music and developed their own techniques, which combine their ethnic roots with more contemporary sounds.

Folk dances and ballads are among the band's repertoire, played using traditional instruments, handed down through the generations, including the suka, an ancient polish fiddle played with the fingernails.

The band has performed in 20 countries and won the BBC Radio 3 Best Newcomer Award for World Music in 2004.

The administrator at Hellens, Nicholas Stephens, said: "We're really looking forward to the concert, they are an award-winning band and they certainly look very lively and cheerful.

"It's the first Arts Alive event we've hosted at the Great Barn since it was put into use last season."

He said he was keen to provide a venue for different styles of world music and that the concert was the first of two events sponsored by Arts Alive.

"We've got the Helen Chadwick group coming on March 4, singing songs and stories inspired by the Eastern Block countries," he said.

"We're not entirely sure what to expect, but we're thoroughly looking forward to it."

He added he was hoping to build up a regular audience at the venue, and to introduce jazz concerts into the programme.

The concert, also sponsored by the Pennington Mellor Munthe Trust, begins at 7.30pm. Tickets are £10 (concs £9) from the Courtyard box office on 0870 1122330.