The Holt Festival opens at the weekend with the streets and venues of the Georgian town playing host to a jam-packed week of international music, theatre, family and kids shows, film, comedy, dance, poetry and visual arts.

The week, featuring more than 100 performances, runs from Sunday July 24 to Saturday July 30 when rock legends 10cc will perform the closing concert at Gresham's School's atmospheric outdoor Theatre In The Woods.

The Festival aims to provide something for everyone with big names including Michael Palin, comic Arthur Smith, classical chart toppers I Fagiolini, composer and pianist Sir Richard Rodney Bennett with singer Claire Martin, and one of the biggest names in both British and American comic books, the mighty Tim Quinn.

There is some exceptional theatre on offer at the festival. On the opening night 1927 Theatre Company bring The Animals and Children Took to the Streets, an inventive modern gothic fairytale that has been electrifying audiences from its premiere at the Sydney Opera House to its sell-out shows in London.

Towards the other end of the week, on Friday, ATC Theatre bring a real coup for the festival with the UK premiere of Germany's most successful new play. The Golden Dragon - a funny and theatrical fable of modern life and migration, whisking the audience from their local takeaway to East Asia and back.

Both The Golden Dragon and The Animals and Children are heading from Holt to the Edinburgh Festival, as is John Osborne who will be performing his poetry at The Festival Club on Monday n the company of fellow performance poets Martin Newell and Molly Naylor.

Another show that can be seen first before heading north of the border is Agnes & Walter: A Little Love Story by Smith dancetheatre - a modern dance piece inspired by the The Secret Life of Walter Mitty, featuring secret wishes, suppressed desires and a garden shed!

Exhibitions including Sir Richard Rodney Bennett's collages and a selection of photographs by Richard Denyer. Pre-Raphaelites and Friends is an exclusive loan exhibition including original works by among others Burne-Jones, Holman-Hunt, Rossetti, Inchbold, Gotch and Norfolk's own Pre-Raphaelite Frederick Sandys.

The streets of the town will come alive throughout the week with a rich mix of music, kids entertainment and fun. Watch out for the Talking Postboxes and the opportunity to order your very own instant poem from a Poetry Takeaway. The festival spends more than a quarter of its programming budget on free events, which include family orientated street shows, storytelling, foyer and late night music.

Full details can be found at www.holtfestival.org and tickets can be booked in the box office at High Silver, 35 High Street, Holt or by calling 01263 711284.