Ryedale’s 30th anniversary features a packed programme of live music.

It begins at two o’clock in the afternoon at Hovingham Hall with a celebration in music of the animal kingdom – this year’s theme. It seems an entirely appropriate choice for what has become one of the country’s most successful rural festivals. This opening event stars the newly-formed Ryedale Festival Children’s Choir who will perform songs including Horowitz’s celebrated cantata Captain Noah and his Floating Zoo. The programme also includes Prokofiev’s Peter and the Wolf and other famous works inspired by the animal kingdom. Suitable for children aged 5-95.

The title of the festival’s Community Opera, A Pig’s Tale, reveals its rural credentials. It is set in medieval France in the small town of Roumaisonne where superstitions are rife. A pig belonging to the one farmer who resists authority bites the daughter of the Count, who insists that the pig be put on trial in a court of law. This is a larger-than-life comedy of dark dungeons, evil barons and singing beasts.

The animal theme is stated clearly in the opening operatic centrepiece, the greatest of all operas about rural life – Janácek’s The Cunning Little Vixen.

Great composers of all periods have been inspired to depict the animal world in music and the festival programme features works such as Vaughan Williams’ The Lark Ascending, Saint- Saëns’ Carnival of the Animals, and Berio’s Opus Zoo! Ravel’s great portraits of the animal kingdom – Histoires Naturelles feature in a recital by an established star of the great opera houses of the world, Sir Thomas Allen.

This part of the world might seems an odd place to find the home of an authentic flamenco guitarist. But that is what a small village just off the A1 can boast in the shape of Eduardo Niebla. My Yorkshire Road will be performed on July 24. His fleet-fingered virtuosity will hold together an ensemble comprising Ripon City Brass Band, the Men of Staithes choir, the Rock Up and Sing choir, folk artists Bryony Griffith, Will Hampson and Lyn Geddes.

Sledmere House and church provide the backdrop for two short concerts (both performed twice, with the audiences swapping between venues either side of the interval). In the house: a much-loved masterpiece inspired by the young Schubert’s holiday in Upper Austria, the Trout quintet, is performed by Ensemble 360. In the church: celebrated soprano and queen of early music Emma Kirkby performs extracts from the treasure trove of 16th and 17th century lute songs.

The festival’s artist-in-residence Julian Bliss and his jazz septet present an evening of some of the best tunes from the Benny Goodman era, including Sing, sing, sing, Stompin’ at the Savoy, Avalon, Lady be Good, and, Memories of You.

The Ampleforth and Ryedale Choir makes its festival debut alongside a quartet of outstanding soloists for Rossini’s Petite Messe Solennelle. As it happens this is neither little nor particularly solemn. Composed during Rossini’s final years, it’s a deeply felt work full of charm, colour, rhythmic vitality and memorable tunes.

Duncombe Park is the venue for the 30th anniversary garden party with music by the Kirkbymoorside Town Brass Band, one of the oldest and finest, who this year will be joined by their twin band, Himmighausen Blasorkester, from Germany.

Ryedale Festival Box Office: 01751 475777, www.ryedalefestival.co.uk/festival-programme/