WITH just over a week to go until the much anticipated launch of Stroud Fringe 2015, the town is abuzz with excitement.

Over 300 performers have been secured for the event, the majority of which are local, but a few very special guests have been invited along from further afield too; such as the Saturday night headline act Millions, who hail all the way from Australia.

Also included in the excitingly diverse weekend is a special performance of Little Metropolis, a piece commissioned for the Fringe, which interweaves memories of the Stroud Valleys with music by Joe Reeve and poetry by Adam Horovitz, a sort of “spoken word tour of Stroud”.

Visitors to the annual festival can also expect to be awestruck by the “once in a lifetime experience” of a trip inside Colourscape, an immersive performance space featuring sets by musicians and dancers in a maze of coloured pods.

Artist Abigail Fallis is hurriedly finishing a new piece of work which will be the figure head for the new procession. It will take its place amongst a dancing menagerie of local wild-life (including rumours of a two metre long salmon!), at 1pm on Saturday, starting from Kings Street and carefully navigating the streets of Stroud with its curious collection of local, and not so local beasts.

Children are welcome to take part in the procession, and workshops will be running all through the weekend to enable them to get involved with making decorations, starting in Bank Gardens on the morning of Friday, August 28.

uStroud Fringe Festival takes place August 28 to 30. Programmes will be available this week.