A FESTIVAL set up to celebrate the district's senior citizens has started with performance art in City Park.

The week-long BOLD Festival was devised by Bradford-based Freedom Studios as a way of showing you're never too old to get creative, as well as change perception about older generations.

During the week there will be operatic flash mobs, poetry readings and dramatic stage productions, all involving over 65s.

The week started with "Pensioner Warehouse" an installation in the window of Forster's Bistro in City Park. The short performance saw the window become a care home style environment where actors portraying two elderly women were shown sat in their chairs, guarded by a watchman. When the guard leaves for a break, the two old dears remove their cardigans, slip on some brightly coloured onesies and play a game of Twister.

The performance, which left passers by baffled and amused by what they were seeing, will be repeated tomorrow with performances at 1pm, 2pm and 3pm.

The Bistro is also host to a photography exhibition - Home Sweet Home, that features images by Christopher Nunn that explores what it is like to be old in modern Britain. It runs until next Saturday.

There will be a exhibition at the National Media Museum, running the entire week, exploring dementia through photographs, writing and an art installation.

On Monday, Bruce Barnes will give a talk and poetry reading at Manningham Mills. In 2009 he and his partner Joy Leach set out on a journey around England, beginning and ending in Bradford, travelling for 19 days on 66 local buses using a Metro pass and writing about their experiences.

Opera North singers will be holding surprise pop up opera performances on Thursday, in locations including the National Media Museum, Oastler Market and outside Bradford City Hall.

There are creative writing workshops at the Local Studies Library on Thursday, and well as an event called Seventy Stories, which will see 70 people aged 70 or over talking about their lives.

Bradford Cathedral hosts several concerts on Thursday, including a ukulele group, harpist and concertina. On Friday Kala Sangam is running South Asian dance performances, and there are pop up storytelling sessions by an over 65s group at Oastler Market, City Library and the National Media Museum.

From Tuesday to Saturday there will be performances of acclaimed play Home Sweet Home, which uses actors to tell the stories and experiences of more than 200 older people from Bradford and other cities. It will be held in the Ukranian Centre on Legrams Lane.

Deborah Dickinson, Creative Producer for Freedom Studios, said: "The Bold Festival and its centre-piece production Home Sweet Home aim to challenge thinking and perceptions about older people and provoke important public conversations. We need to rethink what ‘old’ means and our attitudes to ageing."

For more information and tickets to events visit freedomstudios.co.uk