AN arts marathon will return to Wotton tomorrow with a jam-packed 18-hour celebration including dance, music and literature.

All of the 34 acts taking part in Spring into Summer are free to attend and are hosted between the Chipping Hall of Under the Edge Arts (UTEA), the Chipping Club Room and the Heritage Centre.

The acts, assembled by local musician and community leader Katie Elliott, will begin at 6am this Saturday and run continuously until midnight.

Refreshments will be available all day and all the events are free but buckets will be rattled to help raise funds for Under the Edge Arts.

Acts will feature a mix of music, readings, performances, art demos, talks, lessons, song and dance.

Katie Elliott will kick the marathon of with a 6am-7am solo piano performance in the Chipping Hall to give a gentle start to the day’s events followed by energy exercises led by Ruth Armes.

The following acts will be performing at the Chipping Hall: Christine Sweet and Mim Tait will showcase poems, readings and guided visualisations from 8-9am.

Dance artist Emma Dickson well lead a workshop called Move into Freedom to explore social choreography from 9-10am.

This will be followed by further activities with Nia Dance from 10-11am who bring functional fitness at its finest, all ages and fitness levels are welcomed, classes are performed barefoot.

An art flurry runs from 11am-12.30pm with artists Jane Lampard, Lynne Clarke, Barry Walding, Joyce Pinch, Alison Vickery, Mike Paul and Rob Collins demonstrating their distinctly individual ways of working.

The University of Bristol’s Rag Morris dancers will perform from 12.30-1pm, their thirty years’ experience will be showcased in an energetic, colourful and comic routine.

Vicky Cooper and Richard Toller – Cooper & Toller – will sing traditional English folk songs in unaccompanied harmony and accompanied on fiddle and guitar from 1-1.40pm.

Man Ho Hui will perform a solo piano from 1.40-2pm, he brought the house down with his repertoire last year and the 17-year-old recently won first prize at the Bristol Festival of Music, Speech and Drama.

A mix of four community choirs run by Liz Martin called The Loud Crowd will sing informal and uplifting harmonies from 2-2.50pm.

Charlie Mee and Jo Robinson – Mee and Mrs Robinson – are a vocal and guitar duo based in Gloucestershire, they will perform pop, soul, folk, country, blues and jazz from 3-3.45pm.

UTEA co-chairman Norman Dadd on bass guitar will accompany Bob Hanks on guitar and lead vocals and Dave Ryan on guitar and vocals in an acoustic set to put a spring in your step with hits by Clapton, The Beatles, Dylan and more from 3.45-4.14pm.

Charlie Mee will also lead Build a Band from 4.15-5.15pm, musicians of any age, any experience and any instrument are encouraged to have a go.

The New Generation street and contemporary dance group will perform from 5.15-6pm.

This will be followed by poetry hour from 6-7pm featuring readings of original work and classics from local poets Rosie Bailey, David Barker, Polly Howell, Vivien Dunham and Sarah Watt.

Sheila Bryant will play The Appalachian or Mountain Dulcimer, a fretted string instrument from 7-7.20pm.

There will be a young artist’s showcase from 7.20-9pm featuring a street class from the Ruth Osborne School of Dancing based in Wotton, Mollie Swain on piano and vocals, Charlie Reynolds a singer and guitarist followed by George Bailey on a variety of instruments and Josh Goodchild on piano.

Gloucestershire solo artist James Aldridge will play from 9-9.30pm, he is a regular leader and contributor with music projects in the south west.

Female-fronted alt-rock band Corrupting Josie will perform from 9.30-10.30pm.

Singer and songwriter Clara Sanders will play from 10.30-10.50pm followed by Jo Phillips at 10.50-11.10pm.

Mim Tait and Chris Pilditch of GL12 shall finish proceedings at the Chipping Hall with a combination of delicately crafted songs from 11.10pm-midnight.

Over in the Chipping Club Room events will begin with storytime for little ones from 9-10am.

Maggie How will lead a creative writing class from 10-11am, her taster session will offer you lots of ideas and prompts to get you started.

Judy Collins will lead an art house drop in from 11am-12pm, you are invited to try playing with new materials for the first time or refresh a skill you are out of practice with.

From midday till 1pm Matt Hemson will lead a therapeutic song-writing workshop for those interested in tapping into their inner songwriter.

An array of public conversations will start at 1pm and run until 4pm.

These include Wotton Open Gardens, Wotton Community Sports Foundation, Wotton Secret Gardens Trail, Under the Edge Arts, Wotton Heritage Project, Wotton Walking Festival and Wotton Arts Festival.

Local writers will take over the next hour from 4-5pm reading their own recent work.

Jim Sinkinson, an UTEA trustee, will perform a rehearsed reading of a humorous play ‘A Christmas Box’ to end the events in the Chipping Club Room with a group of his friends from 5-6pm.

Life coach Ruth Armes will lead a vision board workshop in the UTEA Fanthorpe Room from 12-2pm.

Wotton Heritage Centre will also host a powerpoint with amusing, entertaining and interesting anecdotes about the history of the centre and Wotton-under-Edge from 10.30am-5pm.