The annual Nailsworth Festival returns on Saturday 18th May with a huge variety of different events.

The festival began in 1984 and over the years has proved popular among locals and visitors alike.

“This is the 36th year of the Nailsworth Festival,” said Tim Hughes, who handles publicity for the festival.

“It started off as a spring festival to ‘further a positive community spirit’.

“Nowadays our aim is to provide a range of events and activities across the town over a period of about nine days.”

Tim has lived in Nailsworth since 2007, and started working with the festival in 2011.

His day job is as a Professor of Applied Marketing at Bristol Business School University – “this gives me a chance to practice my marketing skills!” he says.

“We start on Saturday 18th May with free entertainment from 10am in Mortimer Gardens together with a market, a duck race and lots of other things happening across the town.

“In terms of music we’ve got ‘The Real People’ who were one of the first bands to play what would become known around the world as Britpop and were cited by Oasis as being a major influence.

“Also The Elias String Quartet who are a prizewinning quartet that have performed in Boston, San Francisco, Vancouver and at the Carnegie Hall.”

Also appearing will be Brooks Williams, regarded as one of the best acoustic guitarists in the world, and Opera Anywhere with ‘Puccini’s Heroines’.

Away from music, there are also a selection of talks at the festival, as Tim explains.

“Seb Choudhury is a familiar face on the region’s television screens. He’ll be in conversation with Katie Jarvis.

“Nailsworth resident Christina Dodwell will talk about the wild and unknown places she has enjoyed and explored and the people she met on her way.”

There will also be theatrical performances from LipService, Nailsworth Dramatic Society’s Youth Group and Playcircle.

“The festival is well received,” added Tim, “and we get a lot of support from the Town Council and a range of sponsors. We think it helps raise the profile of the town.

“For example when the town was featured in the Sunday Times list of ‘Best Places to Live’ the festival was mentioned as one of the features of the town.”

The Nailsworth Festival runs from Saturday 18th to Sunday 26th May.

For the full line up and more information visit www.nailsworthfestival.org.uk