IT’S beginning to look a lot like Christmas – so what better time to enjoy some seasonal songs and support a good cause or three.

This Saturday several choirs from across the borough will be performing traditional favourites on the Upper Level in Festive Place – which has been renamed for the Christmas period – from 10.45am until 3.30pm, with a mass sing-along taking place in Festival Square between 3pm and 3.30pm.

Basingstoke and Deane Mayor Councillor Anne Court will be coming along to support the event which will raise money for Ark Cancer Centre Charity, Inspero and Basingstoke Multicultural Forum – the three charities that will benefit from this year’s Mayor’s Charity Appeal.

Representatives from the charities will be among the volunteers who will be collecting donations during the event.

Cllr Court said: “I am grateful to all the choir members and volunteers who are coming along to support this special festive event, and would particularly like to thank Dai Ogborn and Marilyn Wright for their help in organising and co-ordinating the event.

“I am also grateful for the support of Festival Place and Dawsons Music, in Festival Place, who are supplying a keyboard and speaker for the event.”

The Festival Place team are supporting Ark Cancer Centre Charity as their charity of the year for the second year running, and generous staff and customers have raised thousands of pounds during 2015 through various fundraising events.

Ark Cancer Centre Charity trustee Merv Rees said: “The support from the Festival Place team and visitors to the centre has been fantastic, and I hope that many people will enjoy Saturday’s festive event in support of the Mayor’s Charity Appeal.”

Ark Cancer Centre Charity is raising £5million towards a unique cancer centre that will feature a range of support services and complementary therapies alongside chemotherapy and radiotherapy treatments in a calm and uplifting environment.

The new centre is earmarked for a location in the Basingstoke and Deane area, and if the preferred site near to Junction 7 of the M3 is approved, it will be easily accessible to everyone in the Hampshire Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust region. The centre is scheduled to open at the end of 2018.