Dom JolyIT IS time to roll out the red carpet with famous faces such as Julian Clary, Dom Joly and William Hague on their way to Swindon.

This year's Festival of Literature kicks off tomorrow at 5.30am with the Dawn Chorus in the Lawn Woods, Old Town.

The chorus is one of the festival's more unusual events and pulls in a bigger following each year.

There will be a range of interesting entertainment from musicians to jugglers with bacon butties available to keep people going.

Later in the day Julian Clary will be appearing at the Wyvern Theatre.

Clary's show is only the second time in the festival's history that ticket sales have passed the 500 mark.

Eleven other events, including Michael Buerk, Jon Snow and Clare Short, have each sold more than a 100 seats well in advance.

Organiser Matt Holland said: "Never before have so many events passed the 100 mark so far in advance.

"This year's festival is going to be brilliant. We've got such a wide variety of guests, there's something for everyone.

"I'm really looking forward to it and if there's one event I can mention it's the Swindon Young Actors performing 'the Festival Director's choice', a brilliant production of Shakespeare's Twelfth Night, full of music, action, wit, and wisdom on May 8. It's an event for everyone."

Coun Jemima Milton, Swindon Council's cabinet member for arts and culture, said: "It's going to be a brilliant festival. There's some great people coming and I'm really looking forward to seeing some of them."

This will be Swindon's 12th literary festival with more than 50 events between May 1 and May 15.

As previously reported in the Adver Dom Joly will now be in conversation with Sara-Jane Arbury at the Wyvern Theatre on Sunday, May 15, at 6pm instead of May 2.

And author John Berger, who was to appear with Anne Michaels on Saturday, May 14 at the Community Crossroads (the former railway museum), Faringdon Road has been forced to pull out. His stint will be replaced with a film of a recent rare one-hour interview with Berger.

In conjunction with the festival, the Adver is running a competition to win 12 books written by visiting authors. See Monday's paper to find out more.

On the fringe

The Swindon Fringe Festival is underway and Bank Holiday Monday sees the first of three audience participation events at the Beehive pub, Prospect Hill.

First up is a Martin Newall poetry workshop at 3pm. Martin will follow this with a performance of his work on the same day at 8.30pm.

On Wednesday at 8.30 pm there will be a Traditional Monologue competition, monolgues will be provided.

Finally on Wednesday, May 11, also at 8.30 pm, Tom Harris invites story tellers to join him for an evening of home-grown myth and wonder.

Highlights

Julian Clary, Wyvern Theatre, 7.30pm, tomorrow.

Fergal Keane, Uni of Bath, Oakfield Campus, 7.30pm, Tuesday.

David Starkey, Arts Centre, 6pm, Friday.

David Baddiel, Wyvern Theatre, 6pm, Sunday, May 8.

Clare Short, Arts Centre, Devizes Road, 12.30pm, Monday, May 9.

Michael Eavis, Community Crossroads (old railway museum), 7.30pm, Wednesday, May 11

William Hague, Arts Centre, Devizes Road, 12.20pm, Thursday, May 12.

Michael Buerk, Arts Centre, Devizes Road, 6pm Thursday, May 12

Alistair McGowan, Arts Centre, Devizes Road, 8pm, Friday, May 13.

Jon Snow, Arts Centre, Devizes Road, 12.30pm, Sunday, May 15 .

Dom Joly, Wyvern Theatre, 6pm, Sunday, May 15.

Gareth Bethell