ORGANISERS of this year's Devizes Arts Festival hope there is something for all the family during its three weeks of music, dance and theatre which start on June 2.

Events especially aimed at children include the Festival of the Spoken Nerd at the Corn Exchange on June 10 from 8pm, Otiz Cannelloni and The History of Magic in the Town Hall on June 11 at 3pm and Blunderbus Theatre at the Wharf Theatre on June 18 at 1pm and 3.30pm.

Festival chairman Margaret Bryant said: "We have brought back a number of children's events this year and so we hope whole families will come out to support them."

Cara Dillon, who was nominated for last year's BBC Radio Folk Singer Of The Year prize will be performing on June 5 in the Corn Exchange from 8pm.

Organisers say: "If you don’t know the voice of Cara Dillon, you’re in for a treat. If you are already amongst her legions of admirers around the world, you know you have something special in store.

"This extraordinary Irish singer makes music that transcends genres and crosses barriers. She has won every folk award going, but confesses to being no purist, making music that reaches beyond the constraints and limitations of tradition."

A few tickets also remain on sale for Poet Laureate Carol Ann Duffy who will be in St John's Church on June 4 from 7.30pm. She will appear alongside John Sampson who will take the audience on a virtuoso tour through musical highlights of the past 500 years played on a fascinating collection of period and modern instruments.

Duffy will read from her acclaimed collections, including The World’s Wife and The Bees. John Preston writing in the Telegraph said: "Teenagers rate her poetry as second only to Shakespeare's and, like the Bard, love colours much of her work."

Mrs Bryant said that Duffy's work often appears on the GCSE syllabus and so her appearance could be an excellent chance for teenagers to get first hand experience of her poems.

Historian Lucy Worsley will be among the first guests when she appears at the Corn Exchange on opening night on June 2 for An Evening of Murder.

Other popular acts include Robert Winston, the Blue Bank and Cafe Scientific.

Musical acts include the Kaz Hawkins Band and the TranSiberian March band.

For full information of dates, times and prices go to http://www.devizesartsfestival.org.uk/