Details have been announced of this year’s Brighton Festival, with a crescendo of arts pizzazz descending upon the city once again. Always an eclectic line-up, this year’s outing features all the usual disciplines from art, music, comedy, theatre and debate. The official guide, available now all over town, is really worth sitting down with and going through with a highlighter pen, like a pensioner at Christmas with the Radio Times.

Musical visitations include Antony and The Johnsons, Diamanda Galas, The Willkomen Collective, June Tabor and Bon Iver, as well as a worldwide representation of every ethnic genre you can think of. Theatre buffs can warm the seats for Shakespeare’s Comedy Of Errors, and The Tragedian Trilogy. Our comedy highlight has to be the Modern Toss live show, with big screen projections and a live string quartet, yeah?

Perhaps the most interesting segment of the festival however, certainly in terms of events you’re often hard pressed to find elsewhere, is the books and debate schedule. Here you can witness Radio 4’s The Music Group, Joan Bakewell and Roberta Taylor, Jenni Murray, and our own personal blag intention of Jah Wobble with Jon Savage.

Kicking off with the all drums’n’whistles Childrens Parade on May 2nd, the Brighton Festival is a truly worldwide arts event, both in terms of the performances it showcases and the attention it attracts from commentators across the globe. While for some its line-up may look a tad inaccessible, it’s a true reflection of the massive diversity the arts have to offer, and this is what makes it so synonymous with our city.