AFTER months of planning, the tenth annual Tavistock Music and Arts festival is in full swing with acts from across the country heading to West Devon to perform at the popular event.

The festival offers four weeks of music, art, dance, theatre and literary events in and around the Tavistock area. Names such as Mad Dog Mcrea, the Haldon String Quartet, former BBC writer Adam Hart-Davis and global explorer Pen Hadow will be among the many attending.

The festival, which opened with a performance by the Miracle Theatre company, has got off to a successful start, much to the delight of festival chairman Christopher Kirwin.

He said: 'We had a great audience on the opening night and we hope more people will be persuaded to come as the events go on. We've got plenty going on and some events like Mad Dog Mcrea are already sold out.'

Mr Kirwin believes the festival is just as much about promoting local acts as well as those who are recognised nationally.

'We are very definitely about promoting local performers, but we're very lucky to have great people arranging the festival and it means we can also bring in nationally and internationally renowned names to perform,' he said.

'We can get the créme de la créme of here with a mix of the best of elsewhere as well.

'The festival magnifies the music and arts scene as we move into different areas and we always have acts who want to perform. The pull of the Westcountry is bringing people back, people that have grown to love us.'

This year's festival has been given a 'fast and furious' theme and Mr Kirwin said a number of the events offered underline that.

'Some people have picked items of the programme based on the theme. They want to go and see things which they expect will be fast and furious.

'The theme was inspired by the London Olympics actually. We're having our very own Cultural Olympics in Tavistock.'

This year also marks the tenth anniversary of the festival, but the organisers have decided that the celebrations will be put on hold until next year, when the festival will officially celebrate its tenth birthday.

'We debated doing something this year, but next year will be the tenth birthday, so we want to have a big concert. We hope to get a big act next year to celebrate,' said Mr Kirwin.

The festival is growing in size each year, with this year's promising to the biggest and best yet.

The chairman said he saw no reason why with plenty of support, the festival could not continue to improve.

He said: 'Everyone should be supporting it to the hilt. Smaller places like Tavistock can be as great culturally as the likes of Edinburgh and Hay-on-Wye.'

'When Tavistock sings we don't just mean the acts, we want Tavistock to sing its own praises about everything that goes on here, whether it be arts or lectures or anything else. Anyone in this area should be keen to promote our pride of joy.'

The festival, which began last Tuesday, runs until the May 7 and more information about all the events can be found online via http://www.tavistockmusic.co.uk">www.tavistockmusic.co.uk