Members of the South Oxhey Community Choir will be on song this bank holiday as they headline their very own free festival, The South Oxhey Festival (SoxFest), under the baton of BAFTA-winning choirmaster Gareth Malone. He created the choir from scratch for the latest series of multi-award winning BBC2 series The Choir, due to be screened this autumn.

Gareth saw off fierce competition at the BAFTA’s last weekend, snatching the best feature gong from under the noses of such prestigious shows as Jeremy Clarkson’s Top Gear and The Apprentice with the second series of the show, The Choir II: Boy’s Don’t Sing.

Bank holiday Monday, May 4, sees the BBC camera busy filming Soxfest for series three. The organisers are hoping the festival will become an annual event and hope to bring together all elements of the community to watch the choir that Gareth Malone has been assembling in South Oxhey since October 2008, which is believed to be Britain’s largest community choir. There are around 165 members in the main adults and children section, and another 70 in a children only section. Gareth has also created a separate choir comprising all Year 5 and Year 6 pupils from South Oxhey’s six primary schools – Greenfields, Oxhey Wood, Woodhall, St Joseph’s, Colnbrook and Warren Dell.

Gareth is reluctant to disclose what the choirs will be singing on the day, but to give us a taste he says: “Let’s say it’ll be a collection of popular songs including a U2 cover, a Motown classic and the track we recorded in Abbey Road last month, a cover of The Beatles’ In My Life.

“The main event is the South Oxhey children’s choir, which was formed in September. The children have been giving up their afternoons to get ready for this event and they’ve had some tough lessons to learn to get this far. Now they’re a tight little choral unit and are making a really nice sound. It’s just one of those things where you’ve got well disciplined kids singing together, and it creates a real feel-good factor.”

I ask Gareth how hard it was to get people interested in being in the choir.

“I went everywhere”, he says. “Into the street handing out flyers, to churches and schools. When you see the choir on stage, you can see it represents a broad spectrum of South Oxhey’s community, and there are a lot of them.

“Without giving too much away, part of the story with this series is how I deal with large numbers of people – let’s say it’s been an interesting challenge.

“They’ve had to go through the rigours of putting on a performance and creating something entertaining out of nothing.

“For me, it’s been a big coaching job to teach them to sing from scratch, completely unauditioned and make it fun and vibrant on stage. The idea of the festival has really caught their imagination.”

The choirs will also be joined by nine-piece dance band Fully Funktional, the Gypsy Booth Dancers, soul band Soulfish and British dance troupe champions Kliks. There will also be a fairground, climbing wall, workshops and food stalls.

Soxfest takes place on bank holiday Monday, May 4, 1pm-7pm at South Oxhey Playing Fields. Details: www.southoxheyfestival.co.uk