London International Early Music Festival, 50th anniversary

Since its launch 50 years ago, the London International Festival of Early Music has grown to be one of the largest events of its kind in the world. Instrument-makers, performers and composers gather in Blackheath every year to explore, discuss and play the music of our forebears, expanding our knowledge of the repertoire of a fascinating range of ancient instruments, from sackbuts and crumhorns to viols, lutes and shawms.

Blackheath Halls is given over to a huge fair, where makers display and sell their often beautiful creations and workshops and talks take place, while just round the corner at the church of St Michael and All Angels, instrumentalists perform in a five-concert series that showcases the very best early music practitioners.

London-based contemporary composer Roxanna Panufnik, whose music is played alongside earlier works

Staged over three days and four nights, concert highlights include appearances by celebrated harpsichordist Jane Chapman, with a programme of – among others – 17th- and 18th-century composers Bach, Rameau, Handel and Purcell, and the world premiere of Tears no more by Roxanna Panufnik, inspired by William Byrd's arrangement of John Dowland's poignant Pavana Lachrymae.

There will be more of Byrd's stately pavanes and bouncing galliards in organist William Whitehead’s recital, which will include works by Byrd’s contemporary, John Lugge. The Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment Experience Ensemble (where young early music specialists work alongside established players) will perform works by Mozart and Haydn, and spectacular recorder player Eric Bosgraaf will be joined by the Wrockław Baroque Orchestra to present an evening of Vivaldi concertos.

Harpsichordist Jane Chapman, who performs on Thursday 9 November

In its 50 years, early music and historically informed practice have gone from being the preserve of a relatively few specialists to the preferred music of many audiences and players. See how it's all done – and how far it's come – in this absorbing event. And you will never have heard recorder-playing like it…