A HOST of colourful and creative street theatre acts are heading to this year’s Bradford Festival.

The annual festival - which last year attracted more than 150,000 people, will be held in City Park from July 28 to 30.

Street theatre always plays a big part in the celebrations, and this year’s line-up of quirky actors, dancers and performers has now been revealed.

It includes Urban Astronaut, a dance performance by Highly Sprung which uses a ‘travelling flying machine’ to imagine a possible future where air pollution has hit crisis point.

Award-winning international performance company, Markmark Productions will stage HMS Punafore, a musical comedy where the crew makes disastrous attempts to perform Gilbert and Sullivan’s classic operetta.

Bristol-based stilt-walkers, the Cake Ladies, will serve up a saucy roaming tea party which dishes up sweet treats with a touch of glamour.

Meet the Funnels, by Artemis Productions, is a comical interactive act featuring three chimneys which dance, toot their horns and play ‘follow the leader’.

When the time is right, the characters will surprise festival-goers by popping out like jack-in-the-boxes.

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An amphibious pedalo has been adapted to take Reckless Invention characters, Mfanwy and Gfanwy, to places where normal pedalos cannot reach. The comical characters will attempt to impress City Park visitors with their sporting prowess and dreadful stunts.

Internationally acclaimed Bradford-based theatre company Mind the Gap will perform the premiere of Mirror Mirror, a thought-provoking collaborative piece developed with cutting-edge Liverpool theatre company The Kazimier.

Through ‘absurd performance’, technology and playful imitation, Mirror Mirror explores the experiences of people who are considered ‘different’ in today’s society and prompts the audience to ask themselves: who’s in front of the mirror?

Other performers will include Same Difference, Bradford’s master puppet makers Cecil Green Arts, British street theatre company Acrojou, Shipley-based arts company Q20 and Fused Imagination, formerly known as the Bradford Playhouse.

The festival is run by Bradford Council. Its portfolio holder for culture, Councillor Sarah Ferriby, said: “This year’s festival is packed with lots of colourful and entertaining things to see and do.

“The street theatre programme will be lots of fun with lots of opportunities to interact with the performers.

“Admission is free and everyone is welcome.”