Celebrating the fiftieth anniversary of the moon landing, a Space Parade of giant puppet structures will wind its way through the city’s streets on Saturday 6th July accompanied by music from local performers. The puppets have been created and brought to life by community groups and schools working with professional artists and the Parade will be led by a bicycle-powered orrery made by puppet-makers Festive Road.

The Parade follows the family fun at Festival’s largest free event: the Festival Market takes over Cathedral Close in a day of activities with a wealth of stalls from local crafters and food producers and day-long free live entertainment.

There are lots of shows for families to look forward to during the Festival. Other events marking the moon landing include Moonwalk, a musical account of the Apollo 11 mission written by local composer Duncan Moon, and a 360˚Cosmos Planetarium with shows about Apollo 11 and Destination Space Station.

A narrator and string quartet create a music theatre experience in Peter Rabbit’s Musical Adventures where young ones can get up close to the performers and experience classical music in an informal and stimulating way, while older children will be enchanted by Ballet Cymru’s adaptation of Romeo and Juliet.

New this year is the introduction of a daily Wellness Hour (10am) with topics as diverse as Pilates, massage and well-being to a relaxed performance by world music group Kabantu and Singing for well-being with VOCES8.

Composition 2 is a free exhibition of diverse artwork put together by the Sculpture and Art Foundation CIC. The artwork has been created by local, regionally and nationally known artists and is available to view and purchase.

On the closing day, the Festival teams up with FUSE for Steampunk Ceilidh in the Momentum Marquee as a live band play dynamic adaptations of traditional and original dance tunes with their own caller.