The public will help to choose the winner of Saturday’s Strictly Come Clogging dance-off.

It will be hankies at dawn as five novice Morris dancers shake their best ribboned stick as part of the 42nd Chippenham Folk Festival when it takes over the town for the Bank Holiday weekend starting tomorrow.

Spectators will use colour-coded voting paddles, handed out by Hips and Haws dancers, to indicate who they want to win the Audience Cup when the contestants go through their paces in the main arena at Island Park on Saturday at 1pm.

Contestant Jim Faulkner, 32, who teaches Year Two at Ivy Lane Primary School, said his previous dancing experience involves “doing the Ian Curtis (Joy Division) and the Dad Shuffle.”

Rival Sue Wilthew, chief executive of Chippenham Town Council, who said she is “the wrong side of 50”, said her prior training consisted of “watching Strictly Come Dancing with great enthusiasm”.

She said: “I started to do ballet when I was young, but was so bad I had to change to judo.”

Chippenham museum curator Melissa Barnett, who says she is “older than Sue Wilthew, but better preserved” said she is spurred on by the prospect of beating her boss. She said: “I did country dancing at school, but they had to put an X on one hand to make sure I knew which was left and right.”

The prominent townspeople have been challenged to learn to dance clog morris by Biddestone group Hips and Haws in honour of its 30th anniversary.

Oxford folk band Magpie Lane will also be celebrating – its concert Oxford On Fire on the Sunday evening marks 20 years of playing together.

On the Saturday and Sunday, the Steamchicken ceilidh will celebrate 20 years with a limited edition anniversary dance featuring chicken sisters, steamy horns, cow bells and guest appearances from former members.

Up to 40 people, including Jim Mageean, the Exmouth Shanty Men and Graham Knights, will take to the stage to belt out sea songs for Saturday evening’s shanty concert Round the Horn & Back Again, for which the audience is encouraged to wear something that reflects the sea.

In the last concert on the Monday evening, Luke Daniels and Miranda Rutter will follow the path of the last of the Cattle Droves in England through song, joined by the Southern Sinfonia.

The nightly concerts cost £12 and the lunchtime ceilidhs are £5. Tickets are available from the Chippenham Visitor & Information Centre on (01249) 665970.

The festival is to make a donation to the Wiltshire Air Ambulance on behalf of Strictly Come Clogging, which takes place on the main arena at Island Park.