Audiences at this year's Norfolk and Norwich Festival will be able to get a sneak preview of some innovative new shows heading north to the biggest arts festival in the world this summer.

Eastern Daily Press: NNF 2014: KlangHaus Midnight Feast by The Neutrinos. Photo: Marquis Xavier.NNF 2014: KlangHaus Midnight Feast by The Neutrinos. Photo: Marquis Xavier. (Image: marquis(pi)X)

Five East Anglian acts taking to the stage during the Norwich arts extravaganza in May will be showing their work there first before going to the Edinburgh Festival Fringe in August, and all but one will be at Norwich Arts Centre.

Eastern Daily Press: NNF 2014: 30 Bird - Domestic Labour: A Study in LoveNNF 2014: 30 Bird - Domestic Labour: A Study in Love (Image: submitted)

Norwich Arts Centre director Pasco-Q Kevlin said: 'We like to pride ourselves on trying to be one step ahead. Previewing shows before they go on to the largest arts festival in the world gives our audiences a fantastic opportunity to see work when it's new and fresh and then to have an investment in the future life of the production - we all like saying we saw it first!'

Eastern Daily Press: NNF 2014: Molly Naylor and Iain Ross - If Destroyed Still True.NNF 2014: Molly Naylor and Iain Ross - If Destroyed Still True. (Image: submitted)

Among the acts is art-rock ensemble The Neutrinos who have teamed up with artist Sal Pittman to create KlangHaus Midnight Feast, a multi-sensory performance blurring the boundaries of a gig and live art.

Eastern Daily Press: NNF 2014: Ross Sutherland - Stand-by For The Tape Back-up. Photo: James Lyndsay.NNF 2014: Ross Sutherland - Stand-by For The Tape Back-up. Photo: James Lyndsay. (Image: Sam Robinson Photography.)

Lead singer Karen Reilly said: 'We feel at ease here in Norfolk especially at Norwich Arts Centre, it's like our second home and without the support of Pasco-Q and Norwich Arts Centre we wouldn't be going to Edinburgh. People here aren't taken in by the latest fad, they're up for new stuff, but they want substance, good songs and expect us to always present them in an innovative way. We're going to be pushed to the limit in Edinburgh, so we need to test the foundations of our show with our brilliant home audience. You'll hear new songs and see new visuals.'

Norwich-based poet and scriptwriter Molly Naylor will be performing her show If Destroyed Still True with Bearsuit/Mega Emotion guitarist Iain Ross at Norwich Arts Centre. The show is about our relationship with our teenage selves, and she described premiering her work at the Norfolk and Norwich Festival as both 'a brilliant and scary opportunity.'

'Brilliant as we will get the chance to perform the show as part of an excellent programme of artists, yet I always find it scary to reveal my work to the world for the first time,' she said.

Meanwhile Ross Sutherland, who previously lived in Norwich and is now based in Cambridge, is performing Stand By For Tape Back-up, which was inspired by a teenage experiment linking up The Wizard of Oz with Pink Floyd's Dark Side of the Moon, and Cambridge's 30 Bird is bringing the show Domestic Labour: A Study in Love to Norwich Arts Centre's [Live] Art Club.

Curious Directive, the Norfolk theatre company that performed in an ambulance at last year's festival, is this year performing its latest show Pioneer at Norwich Playhouse.

Jack Lowe, from Curious Directive, said: 'We've been working closely with the festival for the past six months so that Norwich audiences get the first view of a play which sees an eminent astrobiologist and psychologist collaborate with a creative team of 15 (seven of who are from Norfolk)...Pioneer sees Curious Directive bring our characteristic mixture of video design, sound and movement to create a play which takes audiences into mission control, nightclubs, across the Siberian wilderness and onto the surface of Mars itself.'

• The Norfolk and Norwich Festival is May 9 to 25. Stand-by For Tape Back-up and If Destroyed Still True are both at Norwich Arts Centre (NAC) on May 9. KlangHaus Midnight Feast is at the arts centre on May 10 and Domestic Labour: A Study In Love is at the venue on May 20.

Pioneer is at Norwich Playhouse from May 12 to 14.

For more details and to book visit www.nnfestival.org.uk