RESTAURANT bosses have been cooking up an entertainment storm for their diners during the coronavirus lockdown.

Staff at Artisan Ribble Valley, on Whalley Road in Billington, are allowing their regular singers to perform at the venue and broadcast their performances live on Facebook.

David Haigh, manager of the modern, contemporary city-style restaurant and cocktail bar, said: “As our customers and friends are currently unable to enjoy their evenings with us at the Artisan Ribble Valley, we thought we would go to them - virtually of course.

“So for the past three weeks we have had our wonderful regular local singers perform live within Artisan.

“Apart from giving something back to our customers during lockdown by keeping these amazing singers in their minds, the sole purpose of doing the live sessions is to raise some money for the NHS.

“And thanks to their fantastic performances, so far we have raised £2,500 and had more than 50,000 views.”

Mr Haigh said he is hoping to improve on the amount raised as his artists, including Holly Shutes, Freya Kelly and Philip Halliwell, have agreed to more performances.

He said: “It is the Artistan Ribble Valley and our artists’ way of saying thank you for all the hard work and dedication that the NHS staff are doing for us all.”

The next performance will be live on Facebook from 6.30pm on Friday.